Technology leaders and entrepreneurs from the region met in Uruguay

More than 1,200 people from Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, the United States and Israel crowded the Punta del Este Convention Center (Uruguay) to participate in a new edition of Punta Tech Meetup, which was held on January 14th.

This event, the most important of the summer in the region for the business and technology sector, brought together in the same space entrepreneurs, investors and executives of large companies who could enjoy outstanding conferences and the classic networking space.

It also counted with the participation of Uruguayan authorities, among them the former Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, Carolina Cosse and Antonio Carámbula, the executive director of Uruguay XXI, the agency for the promotion of investments, exports and country brand.

The focus of the meeting was on exponential technologies, thus expanding the theme of information technology to other areas such as biotechnology, the future of work and blockchain.

Uruguay XXI, through the sectorial brand focused on the promotion of global services, Uruguay Smart Services, supported this event for the fifth consecutive year, with the objective of summoning foreign investors and businessmen to know firsthand the ICT ecosystem and advise them on the advantages of the country for the development of new businesses.

"Uruguay is a country of 3.5 million people with a surprisingly powerful IT service machine that continues to perfect the execution of the global export model," explained Kirk Laughlin, a U.S. journalist who attended the event for the first time and took a tour of the circuit of companies and organizations dedicated to this industry in the country.

Indeed, in the last 15 years, Uruguay has become a first-class business hub. Today foreign companies come to the country to develop their products or IT services, with interest in expanding their regional operations from there, thanks to notable technological advances, which place it at the forefront of technology in the region and the world, highly qualified talent, and their quality of life (first in Latin America according to Mercer).

Uruguay is a technological hub, its wide connectivity and internet penetration are outstanding. 90% of Uruguayan households have access to optical fiber that guarantees a fast download speed and 100% of public schools have access to the Internet.

Among its most outstanding milestones are the membership and presidency of D9, the world's most advanced group of developing states and digital government, and the submarine fiber optic cable that connects Uruguay with Brazil and the United States since 2017, which represents an advance in infrastructure for sovereignty and knowledge.

Uruguay is the largest exporter of software per capita in Latin America and an undisputed leader in communications, which was singled out in 2017 by the International Telecommunications Union as the most advanced ICT nation in the region. It is no coincidence, then, that a country with just over 3.4 million people has a community of no less than 600 companies in the technology sector.

Its important commitments in recent years embody a superlative increase in the speed of data traffic and offer companies the possibility of setting up and developing first-rate communication businesses. In this sense, the country is number one in the region in e-services and is ideal for the installation of regional centers. No less than 400 global brands choose this destination - which also has free zones and juicy promotional regimes - to develop from Uruguay to the region.

The Punta Tech Meetup, organized in one of the most exclusive tourist centers in the region, has become a dynamic event in the technological sector. The 2019 edition has already enabled consultations and exchanges with companies from the region that have expressed their interest in settling in Uruguay. There it was also announced that Uruguay will host the next edition of LABIT CONF, the most influential conference in Latin America, which since 2013 brings together the world's best exponents in the industry and where governments and CEOs of major companies explore the full potential of technologies linked to bitcoin and blockchain.