Among the major challenges for this year, CUTI representative Leonardo Loureiro said that they are working to consolidate important markets such as the United States, but they are also seeking to re-establish the export flow from other countries such as Brazil, which disappeared from the top 10 export ranking in 2016.
"For us, this is an issue on which we must work hard because we have been losing the weight that Latin America used to have, so that is why we are working with different markets, that is why we did the mission to China, and we are setting up meetings to work hard in Mexico, and last year we held meetings with Chile because we are looking for growth in a set of markets," Loureiro added.
Once this approach is achieved, says the technology expert, there is another major challenge for the extremely important sector. There have to be people who can carry out these projects, so one of the things we are working hard on is training to encourage the new generations to get involved in technology, specifically in these areas. To this end, last year we consolidated the project "Jóvenes a programar", the idea being that they are automatically trained and incorporated into the labour market".
For this reason, the issue of human capital, a decisive link to guarantee the feasibility of the services in which the Uruguayan ICT industry specialises, is a concern for the sector. Loureiro admits that "new talent is needed in the industry, which is why we want young people to be inclined towards this area of knowledge, whether they are engineers or economists who understand that it is a good option to train and work in this field. This talent must be consolidated and the industry must grow, we need many more people than those who are being trained directly in information technology, we want to reverse this shortage.
To support all these plans and move forward, the technology industry generates important links with the national government and academia. "We are working hand in hand with the state and universities, I can say that, fortunately, they have a very good training and all the people who graduate are employed, that is very important, but the issue is that the quantity is not enough, and we are working on this, showing the advantages of studying careers linked to technology. We also need more doctorates, master's degrees, programmers, designers, this is what we are working on, and we are not only including training but also raising awareness of the new technological world.
According to a report by Uruguay Smart Services, from Uruguay XXI this year, taken from its website, concern over the lack of qualified workers is causing foreign companies to turn abroad to fill vacancies, "despite this, the British technology company Endava is landing in Uruguay through the purchase, made at the end of last year, of the American company Velocity Partners, which has a presence in the country with two software development centres," the report details.
This lack of qualified human resources in the country is already considered "a problem" for companies; as a result, they have to move specific projects to other countries. "We have developed in India, because there are resources available there, and if we did it here (Uruguay), it would take months to put together the team. It's a problem nowadays," said Rafael Cuenca, vice-president of engineering at Veri Fone in Uruguay.
Attracting talent as a remedy
Taking into account this labour shortage problem, a year and a half ago, Uruguay XXI - together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Directorate of Migration - agreed to grant temporary residency and visas for foreign workers hired by Uruguayan companies within eight days.
According to the ICT sector coordinator of Uruguay XXI's Global Services Programme, Isabella Antonaccio, quoted in the same report, this solution was widely used by the Indian company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). "More than 100 people came from India, as well as people from Cuba and Venezuela, with a good technical level," Antonaccio explained. The company must apply for residency and a visa, explaining that it has already hired the person, the position he or she will hold and the salary. Residency is granted for two years and can be renewed for two more. Uruguay is competitive for companies that offer high value-added services to set up in the country".
Widespread interest
Some ministries are also showing great support for the sector's concerns and are funding 100% of research and training projects. According to the website of the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM), at the end of last year, the Sectoral Fund for Data-driven Research was launched to finance research projects aimed at generating applied knowledge from the exploitation of available national data.
This fund was created in conjunction with the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII) with the aim of generating experience in advanced methodologies, easily transferable to other domains. It is hoped that the experience and knowledge generated will then allow changes to be made in different processes of the national production system.
For its part, the Faculty of Communication and Design of the ORT University of Uruguay is also making inroads and preparing the new generations with another subject that is still important for the new times: data analysis in networks. The web portal of this university states that "data mining or Big Data is not new, what is new is that technology allows access to an unimaginable amount of data some time ago and to use it narratively. To extract information from this enormous amount of data, a communicator needs skills in areas such as statistics, design and programming".
This is another area that comes to strengthen ICT in Uruguay, as it is not a course on mathematics or statistics, nor on programming or design, but it will have a bit of each with the specific purpose of taking data as a source to tell stories and present reports of interest to readers, conceptualises the university portal to encourage future university applicants to train in this area.
Software made in Uruguay
During 2013, an encouraging and progressive scenario for the Uruguayan technology sector and its export purposes was glimpsed, when the country participated in the ITXPO Fair held in Orlando (USA).According to Carolina Vilarrubia, who was acting as Consul in Miami at the time, she stated that "software is one of Uruguay's main export products" with "rising prospects", after accounting for 100 million dollars in 2005, in 2011 the figure reached 265 million dollars and she predicted that by 2020 it could reach one billion dollars.
For this reason, he considered that innovation and technological development are a "pillar for the development" of the country and, in addition, represent qualified labour. "Software and ICTs are fundamental for Uruguay," he said, highlighting the importance of education in the area of ICTs for the national government, and recalled that the Ceibal Plan has allowed a key boost and familiarity with new technologies among students.
Omar Paganini, vice-rector of Economic Management and Development at the Catholic University of Uruguay, admitted at the event that Uruguay had one of the "first computer engineering careers in South America and that is why, perhaps because of this, we have a fairly powerful software industry".
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