With more than 400 regional executives between operator representatives, regulatory agencies and Government, began the 37th GSMA Latin America Plenary Meeting, with Mobile Business Seminars which highlighted the great opportunity to develop Mobile money and health projects that the industry has in the region.
At the opening of the seminar “Mobile Money opportunities and NFC in Latin-America”, Alexis Arancibia, Innovation and Technology Manager of GSMA LA, reinforced the “excellent occasion that offer the mobile Money initiatives for the Latin-American and the Caribbean region, this because of the lack of financial inclusion but the high mobile penetration”. According to information of GSMA Latin America, every increase of a 1% in banking at rural areas reduces a 0, 34% of poverty while the production increases a 0, 55%.
Later, Carolina Carrasco, Senior Specialist of the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), presented the perspective of financial inclusion that mean the mobile financial services, since 50% of population in Latin-America do not have a saving account and only 20% use the financial system to save money. The expert from the IDB considered as essential the alternative channels that offer the mobile technology, as they make possible to expand those services to the population at lower costs. “A 1% growth in telecom services generates around 3% growth in the economy”, said Carrasco.
At the seminar there was a panel of companies that are innovating in the mobile Money field as Gemalto, Visa, Ericsson, Kuapay and Citigroup which detailed the key elements to build a successful ecosystem in Latin America. The moderator was Andy McGuire, vice president of GSMA and NFC specialist, the technology that makes possible to exchange information between two devices that are separated just by a few centimeters, giving a great range of new services like mobile payments, ticketing and vouchers, among others.
Mobile technology to boost the medical assistance in Latin-America
The Executive Director of GSMA Mobile Health, Jeanine Vos, was the responsible for opening the Seminar “Perspective of Mobile Health for Latin-America” emphasizing that “the general use of mobile connectivity in medical assistance may reduce costs, increase the scope and the accessibility of the health services and reduce the impact of diseases in people’s lives”.
The last report of GSMA states that the mobile health’s projects will mean a great market opportunity of 1.6 million dollars for Latin-America in 2017. “The mobile technology will be a key enabler so that health assistance services reach every place of the planet. The developing countries are trying to launch services that save lives in communities in need and the mobile technology offers the capacity of providing very effective and affordable health assistance, no matter where a hospital or a clinic are” said the specialist.
About the GSMA LA Plenary Meeting #37
The 37th plenary meeting of GSMA Latin America was conducted between 23 and 25 April in Vina del Mar, Chile. Sponsored by ATELMO (Chilean Association of mobile phones) composed of the local operatos Claro, Entel, Movistar, Nextel and VTR, consisted of 3 days of activities including Mobile Business and Public Policy seminars and the sessions of the four GSMA La Working Groups: Billing and Roaming (BARG), Regulatory (REGF), Technical and Terminals (TECT) and Security and Fraud (SEGF). The event had more than 450 representatives from 40 mobile operators in the region, 37 companies providers of networks and services, and more than 30 representatives of government among those who stood out Subtel and CORFO (Chile), Cofetel (Mexico ), ACMA (Australia) and PTS (Sweden).
Pictures: Photo gallery from the Mobile Business Seminars.