 Welcome to the ITU studio in Geneva. We've got the great pleasure of being joined in the studio today by Carlos Alvarado Quezada Who is the president of Costa Rica? Mr. President welcome to the studio a great being here. Thank you for having me now I'd like to start off by talking a little bit about ICT's obviously a priority for us, but I know the priority for you as well I wanted to ask you how have you made ICT development a priority for Costa Rica? Well, it's been a priority for the past two decades or so Why because in today's world Inequality it's not only about income inequality. It has to do a lot with knowledge and access and that's today's world I believe the the main gap those who are included and those who are not included So that's why we put so many effort in it Making connectivity available and we have increased it dramatically in the past years or in Costa Rica For example, you have two intelligent telephones per capita or telephones per capita mobiles So access has Incremented but also the skills we have to work a lot on the skills of people in order to handle those kinds of technologies so we're working a lot on it and that is reflected in our in our performance in the area Talking about performance. Why does Costa Rica rank high for entrepreneurial activity and what is the Costa Rican government doing to support that? Well, it has a lot to do with access Previously, we have only one company did own the connectivity then we open the market and there's competition still with the public company But there are several competitors. Also, there was a fund established to finance connectivity and technology in areas where there was not present so that's also Managing to level the playing field in order to have access in terms of telecommunications and and technology But there's still way to go and but that's become a platform for small businesses to to develop their activities I do believe that next step is adding more value to what the small businesses are doing and that has a lot to do with knowledge-based society Having more access to education better education But this platform is the one that fosters and triggers that possibility And what in your opinion is Costa Rica's most important achievement regarding tech? Well, currently there are several achievements. For example, we in the 90s We managed to attract the investment of Intel to Costa Rica But from there currently we have more than 300 Tech-based companies in Costa Rica, which are very relevant for employment But also for example, currently our main Export is medical devices, which is a lot based a lot on technology also services from it are very relevant and strong in Costa Rica that's based a lot on strong education Billing wisdom and Knowledge on it. What's the next step? We need to broaden that throughout the whole education system We have four four thousand five hundred schools in high schools, which we are now currently Connecting through a sole platform to have everybody access to the same kind of knowledge and bringing that to the School high school level the technical level Obviously in the college and university levels with that base We can strongly be a society based on knowledge And what we also want is to add value and own our own knowledge that we produce So those are the next steps that we are triggering for for now in the years to come now talking about value you've Come here to it you you've taken the time to be here graciously you're visiting us I wanted to ask you what's the value of coming here to Geneva are you looking to? Encourage partnerships investment or what what are the main attractive elements here? Well, we've managed to make a very good connection between Telecom telecom telecommunications also with health and for example All related to patents into knowledge So that's an ecosystem that's working together and we we managed to to to start building alliances on that Also, we come here regarding topics of refugees and migration But there's lots of things related to technology and access that I'll can we work with? Those population it's a matter also of inclusion. So I think those topics are Instead of looking at reality from silos It's looking it from a whole holistic point of view and whenever we do that in a more integral way We we get to to intervene reality in order for good change to happen No, I do use had a very good relationship with Costa Rica I wanted to ask you specifically. What's the value of ITU for you? well value has to do with knowledge good practices Trying out the new things and getting the access to the latest That's of the value for us and also encouraging to to take the lead on certain certain issues. So yeah Actually, the it's a it's for us is very relevant to have this disconnection Can't sell brother could sell that president of Costa Rica Well, thank you so much for joining us in the studio and hopefully we'll catch up with you again at some stage in the very near future No, thank you very much for having me. Thank you