Former President Leonel Fernández participated in the eDevelopment conference (19-20 October in Cambridge, Massachusetts) organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Center for International Development at Harvard University and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. Fernández was one of several speakers invited to help bring an understanding to the challenges facing marginalized communities as they attempt to take advantage of the new information and communications technologies opportunities. One of the speakers at the event, Michael Fairbanks, co-founder and the Chief Executive of ontheFRONTIER, a Monitor Group Company that focuses on web-based solutions to competitiveness and business strategy in developing nations, noted that one of President Fernández’s greatest achievements was starting programs, like the computer labs and remote computer access, that have been adopted by the next administration — of an opposition party. Another speaker, former President of Costa Rica José María Figueres complimented President Fernández and the Dominican culture, for the DR’s rapid development and getting a country to focus on technology, which he said is not an easy task. He showed his admiration for Fernández adhering to his commitment to bring technology to the DR even when public sentiment wasn’t fully in support of the decision. Former President Fernández himself made the point that throughout Latin America, the optimistic feeling about the economy and government that existed only two years ago has changed. He referred to recent events in Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Haiti, for example. Fernández mentioned that for much of Latin America the main challenge is to recover what existed in the past — democracy, free and fair access to media and a functioning justice system. "Without these things there will be no information technology, or trade, or development," said Fernández in Boston. He said that Latin America needs to "go back to the basics and consolidate what we have achieved to continue to progress." Fernandez discussed his admiration for the work of Figueres and his appreciation for Figueres’ support and example-setting in technology. Both speakers emphasized the need for a coherent national development strategy in which all players, the private sector, educational institutions and organizations and the government collaborate to develop a competitive environment, and emphasized that technology is just one component of a strategy. Fernández commented that at the beginning of his term "We found the need to form a national strategy that would have technology as a major component." Costa Rica’s Figueres noted that development is a choice, saying, "No country is obliged to develop." He detailed the extensive efforts that he as President made to bring Intel to CR, including personally meeting with each of the 24 different delegations that Intel sent, and a weekly task force meeting focused on addressing Intel’s concerns. He said that you can measure development and prosperity by the weight of a country – losing weight=greater prosperity. In Figueres’ own words: "Before Intel, Costa Rica was a very heavy country. We export containers of bananas and they are weigh a lot. Now we are a lot lighter – microprocessor exports weigh a lot less." Figueres went on to note the spillover effects of the Intel plant – currently applications to the Costa Rican technical university are up 1,000%, and interest in technical high schools is also very high, he explained. For more information on the conference, see http://edev.media.mit.edu/
