Dr. Marco Antonio Dias
Former Director of the Division of Higher Education ñ UNESCO

Dr. Alexandre Rivas
Universidade do Amazonas
Fundacao Getuli Vargas/ISAE


In Latin America, initiatives to a broadband connection among its countries will start by Amazonia. The city of Manaus in the State of Amazonas in Brazil will be the irradiating point. Manaus has an important geographical position because it is located in the very heart of the Amazon region. In October of 1998, Fundacao Getulio Vargas (FGV/ISAE), Fundacao Rede Amazonica de Televisao (FRA) and GLOSAS/USA with support from the University of Amazonas organized an International Demonstrative Conference on New Technologies for eletronic distance learning. The conference put together five countries through the Internet, ordinary telephone and video tapes. The conference was broadcasted to South America and to the rest of the world via Amazonsat (TV and Internet ñ www.amazonsat.com.br).

A second and very important point that qualifies the region as the starting point for this initiative is that in the late 1980s was created a consortium of universities from Amazonia called UNAMAZ. The consortium had the objective to promote the integration of the universities and foster development in the international Amazonia region. UNAMAZ created the information system from Amazonia (SIAMAZ). The system had the objective to generate and systemize information and to promote networking among the universities. During the first seven years of its creation UNAMAZ was very active and significantly moved towards its objectives. However, in the last 3-4 years the consortium slowed down its pace due to some factors, among them, lack of financial resources. Despite the problems faced recently, UNAMAZ has the necessary resources, particularly human resources, to support the development of the proposed initiative. In addition to UNAMAZ other institutions like FGV/ISAE, FRA and SIVAM will continue their participation and other may join later.

Efforts to establish a broadband connection among Latin American countries is the first step to a North/South America and global connection. The establishment of such broadband connection in South Amercia will have the main objective to facilitate and promote studies in environmental sciences and to contribute to the improvement of health care provision linking public and university hospitals. This iniative will also give the opportinuity for schools, especially primary and secondary schools, to gain access to the Internet.