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Project Clara integrates Latin America networks with Europe

Reuna

María José López Pourailly

12.02.2002

In Santiago, Chile, on 18 and 19 of last November, in the areas of the National Commission of Technological and Scientific Research (Conicyt), the most important representatives of the academic networks of Latin America met.

The reason of the meeting? Building an Advanced Academic Network among the Latin-American countries and interconnect them with GEANT, its European equivalent. The initiative is embodied in CAESAR, the project of the Program @LIS of the European Community that will contribute with part of the financing to the establishment of the network infrastructure.

CLARA (Cooperação Latino-americana de Redes Avançadas - Latin-American Advanced Networks Cooperation) is the name that the academic networks of Panama, Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Cuba, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Brazil, Venezuela, Paraguay, Honduras, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, and Chile have chosen to form an alliance that materializes that interconnection.

Elena Vilar Pascual, member of the European Community Cooperation Bureau, states that the importance of connection of academic networks of Latin America and Europe lays on the necessity of improving the present capacity of connection. "This is one of the fundamental aims of @LIS. We want the conjoint research projects multiply and that there may be a broader community with access to the high capacity networks, in order to permit more advanced researches".

Nelson Simões, General Director of RNP (Brazil) and General Coordinator of CLARA, remarks that the main benefit to Latin America, if the project reaches its targets, will be the close collaboration between the region and Europe. "If we get a direct connection next year, all the projects that nowadays aren't viable, because there isn't appropriate width of band or innovative applications, will be possible to be carried out. This will guarantee that our countries will have access to a high level scenario and will demonstrate that they won't be on the margins of the process of the Information Society".

According to the General Coordinator of CLARA, a second strategic reason to the nations is the importance of building a Latin-American global network infrastructure. "It's a mark we've been pursuing for years and, thanks to @LIS, it's the first time we will have the possibility of using the resources of the European Union to generate this network and, with it, establishing a real and direct relation between Latin America and Europe".

In order CLARA stops being a project and becomes a reality, it's vital the commitment of the governments of each country of the region. Elena Vilar states that the European Community has already identified the participation of the public sector as one of the conditions to guarantee the sustainability of the project. "The financing of @LIS will be for 3 years, but our idea of a successful project is that it may be sustainable in the medium and long term. The support of the governments is also a way of guaranteeing a political and financial commitment".

To Ms. Vilar, it is fundamental that the states understand that they are the main beneficiaries if CLARA succeeds. "The creation of a regional network will permit a bigger collaboration and cooperative research. Besides, it will make possible the generation of economies of scale, reduction of costs, increase of the coverage, lower prices and higher speeds. All this without saying that an alliance like that would meet the interests of each government in what concerns to the relation with the European Union. So, we don't have only a strategic interest, but also a political interest".