Havana to host Informática 2024 19th International Convention and Fair

By Daily Pérez Guillén

Artificial intelligence, information and communications technologies, robotics, cybersecurity and even women’s inclusion in the digital creation sphere are set to top online search engines from Cuba starting March 18. That date will see the opening of the Informática 2024 19th International Convention and Fair in Havana under the slogan “For a Digital Society.”

Sector experts and authorities gathering at the Havana International Conference Center will find a space to share relevant data on technological development in this area. At a press conference, Cuba’s First Deputy Minister of Communications, Wilfredo González, announced that the Secretary General of the Caribbean Telecommunications Organization, Rodney Taylor, and Ana Veneroso, regional representative of the International Telecommunication Union, a specialized agency of the United Nations of which Cuba is a member, will participate in the high-level panel on digital transformation and its challenges, scheduled for the opening day.

Nine other scientific events and eight keynote lectures, including one on artificial intelligence, make up the program of the event, which has already registered around 1,000 participants from 16 countries.

After six years, the Fair returns to its exhibition format and commercial forum at Pabexpo. The Cuba stand, located at the venue entrance, will showcase 28 projects associated with the national IT applications and services industry. The number of exhibitors confirmed so far includes 48 national and 19 foreign firms, already exceeding the number at the 2018 edition. Included among them are at least 10 private Cuban economic actors.

Engineer Ariadne Plasencia Castro, president of the Informatics and Communications Business Group and executive secretary of the Fair, told TTC that this space returns with the fundamental purpose of providing a favorable environment for the presentation of new products and services, both national and international, of greater economic and social impact; promoting innovation and technological development of telecommunications and information and communication technologies; providing areas for exchange between economic and professional stakeholders in the sector; contributing to the strengthening of the country’s digital ecosystem; promoting cooperation, communication and collaboration between companies, institutions and organizations; fostering inclusion and digital culture; and promoting Cuba’s image as a country with export capacity in the development of information and communication technologies, as well as foreign investment opportunities in this field.

According to its organizers, the Informática 2024 19th International Convention and Fair is evidence of the results achieved by specialized actors in ICT management to promote the informatization of Cuban society and advance in its digital transformation, one of the essential pillars of government plans in Cuba.