Topic 1: National digital priorities & implementation needs
In Cuba, three priority and interconnected actions have been identified to achieve development based on the use of ICTs:
- the creation of basic and advanced digital skills and competencies, including issues of AI, cybersecurity and other emerging technologies;
- inclusive access to technologies for professional and personal growth;
- develop, in the midst of the difficulties we face, telecommunications infrastructures, the stability, security, resilience and quality of their services.
To this end, last year the Policy for Digital Transformation, the Digital Agenda that implements it and the Strategy for the Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence were approved.
Currently, initiatives such as a unified platform for online procedures and services and digital identity are being deployed, public-private collaboration is favored, technology-based companies are encouraged, the development of the ICT industry is being promoted, digital health projects and accessibility programs for people with disabilities and progress for women are being deployed, the legal framework is being updated and technological sovereignty is being strengthened, among other issues.
Work is being done to achieve a society with skills and competencies that allow it to make a critical, humanistic and ethical use of technologies and data, including their governance; where the culture of innovation prevails and is cultivated in a safe digital environment that contributes to the general well-being of citizens and the integral development of the country.
This effort is being carried out despite the fact that the United States government has imposed on Cuba for more than 60 years the most severe and prolonged system of unilateral coercive measures that has ever been applied against any nation. Despite the inhumane prohibitions and limitations imposed by this siege, our country will not renounce its development, including its scientific and technical progress, and digital transformation.
Finally, I would like to reiterate that we will not relent in our efforts to remain an active and useful member of the UN in the construction of the Information Society and in the follow-up and implementation of the agreements derived from WSIS.
Cuba aspires and is determined to build a digital future that benefits all of society and fosters inclusion, equity, and social justice.
Thank you