How we are doing and how we can improve", in the framework of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Computer Institute.
In his speech, Ferreri indicated that "the question (how are we doing and how can we improve?) I cannot resist the temptation to approach it with a definition of development. And development, among other issues, must always have two sides of the same coin: higher levels of growth and higher levels of equity and social cohesion.
"There is no real development if we only have greater equity and no growth, and conversely, growth is not enough if it is not accompanied by greater levels of equity and social cohesion," he said.
"The software and information technology industry, from our perspective, currently plays a fundamental role in collaborating in the two areas of this development currency, both in terms of growth and in terms of improving levels of equity and social cohesion," he continued.
On the growth side, this is a thriving industry, with a turnover of more than a billion dollars, with 350 million dollars in exports, but not only that, "it is an industry that has a capacity to innovate and is less risk-adverse than the rest of the economy," the deputy economy minister stressed.
"Innovating, taking risks, also contributes to growth. And it collaborates with higher levels of productivity, because today we see discussions in Latin America about productivity and profitability and this can basically have two faces at the extremes: on the one hand, to be more profitable by reducing costs, and for example to enter into strong reductions in labour rights, or we can be more profitable because we add more knowledge and more value to what we produce. Technology can collaborate strongly. The Uruguayan software industry can strongly collaborate in these aspects," Ferreri said.
He cited as an example the case of the agricultural industry, "which has undergone a remarkable transformation in productivity thanks to technology in the last 20 years".
"And this has to do with the most incipient uses of big data, the analysis of information for climate risk, drones to monitor crops, but also, for example, projects supported by the ANII, in what has to do with humidity control to control irrigation of plantations, that is, there is strong support to generate higher levels of productivity," Ferreri continued.
"We can say that today we are probably in a disruptive era, in the way of generating business, in the way in which we all know, in economic transactions this is going to change radically and we could say that we are not in an era of change but in a change of era, where many times hybrids are generated between goods and services to generate a new category, that generates enormous opportunities and enormous challenges," he said.
And given the country's potential in these areas, the human and infrastructural capacities, "Uruguay can make strong use of the opportunities beyond the threats. And this is something that is not common for a country like Uruguay. Probably, as it did not happen before in other industrial or productive revolutions, being very small will probably become an advantage rather than a problem".
"But this also creates threats, and I give an example from agriculture. Last year China opened the world's largest bovine cloning laboratory, and is going to clone one million high-level cows per year. This becomes a big threat for an agro-industrial country. So there are many opportunities and there are threats. How we prepare for that is going to define whether we take advantage of the opportunities or get eaten up by the threats. The creation of the Computer Science Institute of the University of the Republic, 50 years ago, was probably a disruptive element. It contributed to the advanced vision that the country has in some aspects.
Because we need more of that disruptive spirit to keep moving forward. But this is not only about opportunities in agriculture. We can talk about aspects that have to do with improving the quality of life of citizens.
For example, at the end of this period, having a one hundred percent digital government or having the medical records of all hospitals in electronic format also contributes to aspects of equity, because they solve problems for citizens, avoid wasting time, and therefore can also contribute to this aspect.
"Another aspect of equity is the redistributive policy, which par excellence is the generation of quality and well-paid employment. And this sector generates quality and well-paid employment. So it works on both sides of the coin in a way that other sectors probably don't," the undersecretary said.
"On the regulatory aspects one might think that there are local challenges but they are basically global challenges, where there are things to generate progress and others that are problems.
The tax aspects are gigantic challenges that have everyone - finance, economics, tax - on tenterhooks, not knowing how to respond to all these things.
"When you went to buy a jacket in a shop, that sale generated VAT and you had to pay it, and it was clear that it was paid in the territory where the sale took place. When Amazon generates hot air balloons to supply orders in different places, where do we pay VAT?
And this is not an academic or technical discussion of tax aspects, but rather the basis for the sustainability of public policies. If we give up tax bases because of these issues, how are we going to pay for public policies that help to increase equity and generate opportunities for all Uruguayans.
So there are also enormous challenges to work on. And we can give an example in which Uruguay was a pioneer in Latin America, I am referring to the case of Uber.
Uruguay was the first in Latin America, and one of the first in the world, in fact, to generate a regulation that would allow a disruptive solution for transport services to be incorporated into the Uruguayan economy and to be regulated and to pay taxes and coexist with traditional systems," he underlined.
"Today, the answer to the question of whether we are prepared for these times of change is no. Because if we say that we are facing disruptive changes, the definition is that they are those changes for which nobody is prepared because we don't know what they are. The best we can do is to analyse the future, interpret it and work to ensure that the country's human and infrastructural capacities are in line with the challenges we face. The Uruguayan software industry plays an absolutely relevant role today, but in the Uruguay of the future it will play an even more important role," Ferreri concluded.
Source: MEF
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