Lucas Parente
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília – Approximately 100 parliamentarians of over 20 countries participated this Monday (6) on the opening ceremony of the 3rd general assembly of the International Parliamentarians’ Association for Information Technology (IPAIT), in the Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia. The objective is to discuss digital exclusion in Brazil.

For the entity’s Vice President, Deputy Luiz Piauhylino (Democratic Workers Party [PDT] of the state of Pernambuco), the event helps reduce exclusion in the country. "We will strengthen the collaboration among nations and try to balance the use of communication and information technology tools," he said.

There are 30 million people with Internet access in Brazil, which represents approximately 17% of the population. According to the Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Communications, Paulo Lustosa, Brazil has 180 thousand public schools and only five thousand of them have computer labs.

According to Lustosa, there are projects being created to end digital exclusion in Brazil. The Connected PC (PC Conectado), for example, is one of the four axes of the Ministry’s Brazilian Digital Inclusion Program. The program focuses especially on families with income between three and ten minimum wages (US$374 to US$1,248), which have means to use part of their income to purchase a computer, as well as on small businesses. The program offers tax exemption for industries, and attractive credit line for consumers, with interest rate up to 2% per month.

Translation: Andréa Alves