Roundup: Peru regulators, Uruguay AI, Panama tech entity, and more

Regulatory Merger

Peru's regulators of telecomunications (Osiptel), transportation (Ositran), sanitation (Sunass), and energy and mining (Osinergmin) rejected a proposal by prime minister Gustavo Adrianzén to merge the entities into one multi-sector agency.

“A possible merger, without further analysis, into a single large regulatory body can lead to serious damage to the national economy caused by a lack of specialization and a negative signal for investors,” according to a joint statement. “The merger would imply the risk that regulatory decisions would lose their technical specialization, as they would be more prone to intense political influence,” they added.

The regulators said that similar proposal had been floated before, but were abandoned because it was found a merger “was not appropriate for the purposes pursued by the State.”

Simplification

Colombia's IT regulator CRC launched the public consultation phase for reforms to tackle obsolete standards and to identify room for simplification and optimization to reduce compliance costs.

The consultation will be open through July 2. Details are available here, in Spanish.

A proposal for sector debate should be ready in the fourth quarter and a decision is planned to be issued in 2Q25.

New agency

Panama has created the science, technology and innovation observatory (Opcyt), which will be in charge of consolidating statistical information for decisionmaking, public policy-making and institutional strategies.

Opcyt is part of science and technology entity Senacyt and will receive input from academia, the State, the productive sector and civil society.

Uruguay AI

Antel Lab, a unit of Uruguayan state telco Antel, the government and Google Cloud launched a competition to drive innovation in the field of artificial intelligence.

The AI Tech Challenge offers entrepreneurs and startups a platform to demonstrate their skills in developing AI solutions that impact society and could turn into business solutions.

The challenge is part of the national artificial intelligence strategy, under which Uruguay wants to become a regional leader.

Uruguay is also developing a regulatory framework for the ethical and safe use of AI.

Designation

The CEO of Costa Rican state company ICE, Harold Cordero Villalobos, will oversee the company's telecoms segment on an interim basis.

Luis Diego Abarca Fernández, the previous telecoms head, resigned after news emerged that high-level staff participated in a party sponsored by Chinese telecoms provider Huawei.