IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

Aims to reduce crime rates and streamline services

Bitel, a major telecom in Peru, has invested $70,000 in a smart city project involving facial recognition in Trujillo, specifically in the District Municipality of Salaverry. This surveillance initiative aims to integrate biometric technology into the existing urban infrastructure, with the goal of improving residents’ quality of life, streamlining urban services, and reducing crime rates.

As part of the initiative, Bitel strategically plans to deploy smart devices and security cameras throughout the district, aiming to monitor public spaces in real-time. These devices’ ability to collect, analyze, and act upon data in real-time allows for immediate response to incidents, enhancing public safety and security.

Overcoming state dependence may be crucial for digital innovations to transform democracy by engaging more citizens in the political process.

Latin America has always been a region of deep contradictions, and this is especially true when one considers its politics and democracy. Despite its authoritarian past that continues to show through in some political practices and institutions, the region has experimented with democracy in very innovative ways in recent years. Likewise, whereas the region still suffers from deep social inequality and is not yet free from poverty and hunger, Latin America is the world’s third largest regional online market and its internet penetration rate is above the world’s average, half of which is due to intense smartphone usage.

Peru's recently-issued biometric passports will be also required for Peruvian citizens’ visa-free entry into the US, if a visa-waiver process consolidates, the Foreign Affairs Ministry affirmed.

"It’s a great advantage to rely on the biometric passport nowadays [...]. This document will be used in case the American visa becomes exempted; that [requirement] is comprised in the process engaging the US," Ambassador Carlos Polo indicated.

Lima's Miraflores district is among the most modern urban centers in Latin America, whose management-related advances could well be replicated in the rest of the country and other cities across the continent, Miraflores Mayor Luis Molina has affirmed.

Miraflores has become the first smart jurisdiction in Peru, he said at the Valor sobre Ciudades Digitales forum held within the framework of the Peru-Korea Memorandum of Understanding and the National Strategy for Smart Cities, organized by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM).

City to be recognized in April gala

A chronic complaint of the city’s commuters was the impetus of Lima receiving national recognition this week.

Mayor Sharetta Smith announced Wednesday the city had been named a recipient of the 2022 Smart 50 Awards for its Smart Train Avoidance project.

What used to take twenty days and dozens of hours waiting in long lines at government buildings will now take 72 hours and can be done online.

But a leading freeware advocate said Tuesday it remains to be seen whether President Alejandro Toledo will sign the bill into law.

"There are many associations on a national level that do not agree with this because they believe it will affect their interests," Jose Cairo Gallardo, president of the Peruvian Free Software Association, told The Associated Press.

Peru joins Brazil, China, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and other countries in actively moving toward the Linux operating system and other open-source alternatives that can mean millions of dollars in savings.

Der peruanische Kongress hat ein Gesetz verabschiedet, das freier Software in staatlichen Organisationen Priorität einräumt. Das "Gesetz zur Neutralität bei der Beschaffung von Lizenzen und Services für Informationstechnologien" wurde von 61 der 66 Abgeordneten ohne Gegenstimmen angenommen, hieß es gestern in Lima.

The 50 “plug and play” terminals, which are portable devices the size of a small suitcase, allow users to make calls to telephones, access the Internet and provide other voice, data and video services, such as telemedicine.

A South Korean government delegation will visit Brazil and Peru next week to promote its electronic government systems, the ministries of interior and foreign affairs said Wednesday.

The team led by a senior official of the Ministry of the Interior plan to visit the South American countries through Tuesday.

In Peru, the delegation plans to hold talks with senior officials from the Prime Minister's Office, and the Ministry of Transport and Communications. It is also scheduled to hold sessions to train Peruvian civil servants on the use of e-government.