The secure telecommunications plan, which will affect also the way the country's business and financial and public sectors make use of telecommunications to boost productivity, makes Colombia's government a key stakeholder in a campaign called Vive Digital.

Vive Digital, a brand name for the official Information and Communication Technology policy, was introduced to participating exhibitors and public at ANDICOM 2010 international ICT convention in Bogota.

Colombian government strategies hope telecommunications modernization will also strengthen the state security industries in their fight against crime and narcotics exports to North America. Critics say better communications will also lead to greater government intervention in Colombian society.

The funds going into the program may seem modest in U.S. dollar terms -- $3 million -- but they are equal to 5.5 billion pesos, a substantial investment in Colombian terms, analysts said. The spending will go into achieving a "leap over the technological divide in the next four years by bringing the Internet to the general public and developing the country's digital ecosystem," an official statement said.

"Our commitment as a government will be to promote the use of the Internet by the general public, and thereby make a leap towards democratic prosperity," said ICT Minister Diego Molano Vega.

"It has been demonstrated that the use of ICT tools as part of every citizen's life strongly influences a country's competitiveness and development," he added.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and his Cabinet used technology to introduce the plan and address ANDICOM's 2,000 participants. Santos was in Argentina for the funeral of former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, who died Oct. 27.

Officials said Vive Digital will promote "expanded infrastructure, services creation, applications development and user appropriation of technology." Alliances between the private sector and technology initiatives in all the ministries and the president's office will play various enabling roles, officials said.

The government is setting up a technology board made up of business people and civil servants and coordinated by Santos.

Officials said studies worldwide demonstrated a direct correlation between Internet penetration, technology use, job creation and a reduction in poverty. The World Bank reported that, in developing countries, a 10 percent increase in broadband penetration led to 1.4 percent rise in economic growth.

A study by Raul Katz, of Columbia University, N.Y., said a 10 percent increase in broadband penetration in Chile reduced the unemployment rate by 2 percent.

Vive Digital will aim to increase the percentage of homes connected to the Internet from 27 percent to 50 percent and the number of connected micro-, small- and medium-sized businesses from 7 percent to 50 percent.

The program aims to quadruple the number of Internet connections from 2.2 million to 8.8 million in a population of more than 45.5 million.

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