Visit of Minister of Communications and Information Technology to Colombia India - Colombia PRESS RELEASE
April 02, 2002 - Bogota
Hon’ble Shri Pramod Mahajan, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, paid an official visit to Colombia from 31 March to 3 April, 2002 at the invitation of the Colombian President, H.E Mr Andrés Pastrana Arango. He was accompanied by a 12-member business delegation comprising senior representatives of CIT companies from the public and private sectors.
2. Shri Pramod Mahajan called on President Pastrana on 1 April, who hosted a lunch in honour of Minister CIT. The two leaders reviewed the extensive progress made in strengthening bilateral commercial and economic relations since the State Visit of the Colombian President to India in March 2001 and discussed initiatives to further strengthen Indo-Colombian cooperation in the field of CIT.
3. Hon’ble Minister CIT held talks with the Colombian Minister for Communications, H.E. Ms Angela Montoya Holguin and the Colombian Minister for External Trade, H. E. Ms Angela Maria Orozco Gomez. The three Ministers together addressed an Indo-Colombian Forum on Information Technology and Communications which was attended by a large number of Colombian companies and the accompanying Indian business delegation. Detailed business discussions were also held during the visit between Indian and Colombian companies on joint collaboration, joint ventures and ways of enhancing their business relations.
4. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on bilateral cooperation in the field of IT was signed during the visit. The MoU provides, inter alia, for the formation of a Joint Task Force which will explore mutually beneficial cooperation in the areas of research, design and development of IT; exploration of third-country markets; electronic commerce; electronic governance; electronic health; human resource development through virtual education; training in IT; information security and cyber crime; and banking automation.
5. Colombia has become the first point of entry in Latin America for Indian IT companies. Aptech, Tata Infotech, NIIT and Pentasoft have opened 18 IT education centres in various cities of Colombia.
6. During his visit, Hon’ble Minister CIT inaugurated NIIT’s Bogota Centre and visited Aptech’s main Bogota Centre on the occasion of its first anniversary.
7. Hon’ble Minister CIT and his Colombian counterpart, Ms Angela Montoya Holguin, agreed on the earliest possible constitution of the Indo-Colombia Joint Task Force on IT envisaged under the MoU in order to facilitate the further growth of cooperation and business relations at both governmental and private sector levels. They also stressed the importance of moving ahead with joint ventures in IT education, software development and IT enabled services, with a view to exploiting opportunities in the large Spanish-speaking Latin American market.
8. Hon’ble Minister CIT invited the Colombian Minister for Communications to pay a return visit to India at the head of a business delegation at an early date. The invitation was accepted with pleasure, with mutually convenient dates to be decided through diplomatic channels.
Bogotá, 02 April, 2002
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