NIA President, Kwang-Soo Chang and NIA¡¯s Executive Director of Global IT Cooperation, Dr. Jeongwon Yoon visited South and Central America in November for the Inauguration of 2 Information Access Center (IAC) in Paraguay and in the Dominican Republic.

The IAC in Paraguay was inaugurated again after the original IAC opened back in 2009 at the Asuncion National University (UNA) of Paraguay in the capital of Asuncion. The opening ceremony was on November 28th with both NIA President Chang and NIA Executive Director Yoon in attendance. From Paraguay, Pedro Gerado Gonzalez, Rector of UNA and Juan Carlos Figari, National Information and Communication Deputy Commissioner and Technology Agency attended along with Korean Ambassador to Paraguay, H.E. Myung-jae Hahn.

The IAC includes a conference room equipped with audio/video equipment and a teleconference system, an IT training facility and High-speed Internet Public Access Office. Thus, ICT experts¡¯ community, as well as the public will be able to benefit from information technology, improve their IT skills and widely use this as a cooperation ICT tool. By the end 2013, a total of 38 IACs will have been built in 36 different countries around the world.


After the reopening of Paraguay¡¯s IAC, a special meeting was held between the NIA high-level officials and David Ocampos, Minister of SENATICs at the Secretariat for National Technologies and Information Communications (SENATICs) where ICT cooperation was discussed not only from a past perspective but also moving forward in the future between Korea and Paraguay.

On December 2nd, both NIA President Chang and Executive Director Yoon traveled to the Dominican Republic for the opening of a new IAC as well as take part in an ICT Seminar. An Opening Ceremony for the new IAC in Dominican Republic took place at the Government Complex of the Dominican Republic in Santa Domingo as the space was provided by the DR¡¯s Ministry of Public Administration (MAP). From the Dominican Republic, the Minister of MAP, Ramon Venturea Camego and Dong-sil Park, Korean Ambassador to the Dominican Republic attended the Opening Ceremony of the new IAC.

In addition to the Opening of the IAC, there was an ICT Seminar in which NIA Executive Director Yoon gave a presentation on Korea¡¯s ICT development and next steps for e-Government and nurturing and growing the Creative Economy through the utilization of ICT.