Geneva, Switzerland, Mar 15 (Prensa Latina)

The Cuban First Deputy Minister of Communications, Wilfredo González, called today at the World Summit on the Information Society Forum (WSIS) to develop national digital content as a matter of sovereignty.
Speaking to Prensa Latina in this city, the head of the island's delegation to the annual WSIS follow-up meeting said he shared Cuba's experience in digital transformation and the contribution of local platforms in a global scenario dominated by the monopoly of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

In our opinion, this is a key issue, with components that range from the interest in preserving the cultural identity of the people to saving resources, he said in the context of the forum, which runs from March 13 to 17.
According to González, in Cuba, the will prevails to make the most of the human capital formed thanks to the inclusive policies of the Revolution, which in the field of ICTs are already bearing fruit.
We have made progress in e-Government and e-Commerce, thanks to the use of national initiatives, an area in which we can already speak of more than 260 government platforms or portals, with a conception that goes beyond the idea of Internet presence to point towards interaction with citizens, he explained.

The First Deputy Minister of Communications pointed out that this vision translates into easy access to services and the possibility for the population to participate, give their opinions and make suggestions through these portals, with new projects to come for the simplification of procedures and the use of digital signatures and payments.

Regarding the steps taken, he also mentioned the materialization of two collection and payment gateways, one of them in the telephony sector, with more than four million users.

Our strategy is to promote this digital transformation process with a sovereign approach, in a challenging scenario, due to the real limitations caused by the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States for more than 60 years, he warned.

The third day of the follow-up forum in 2023 to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), an instrument that seeks to close the North-South gap in access to ICTs, brought good news for Cuba, as two of its projects were awarded the status of champions.

We have been participating for several years precisely with our own solutions and initiatives in digital transformation, this time with four projects, one from the University of Informatics Sciences (UCI), two from the Joven Club de Computación y Electrónica and one from Cubarte, from the Ministry of Culture, he told Prensa Latina.

This Wednesday, the initiatives Club Móvil Joven Ecológico of the Joven Club de Computación y Electrónica and La Papeleta de Cubarte were awarded in the chapter of the Forum dedicated to Information and Communication Infrastructure.

González emphasized that the Joven Club seeks to take ICTs to communities far from urban centers and to remote areas, so that children can interact with them from an early age and learn how to use them.