Honduras Joins LATAM 4.0: An Agreement for AI Development in Latin America

By Bufete Mejia & Asociados

The governments of Honduras and the Dominican Republic recently signed an agreement to implement the LATAM 4.0 Project. This initiative aims to create a  multi-sector coalition, scaling up artificial intelligence (AI) HUBs across the region. The ultimate goal? To solidify technological advancement throughout Latin America.

LATAM 4.0 focuses on fostering a robust regional AI ecosystem through human capital development by offering AI training programs. The HUBs will spearhead this effort, with 1,000 young people (500 each from Honduras and the Dominican Republic) receiving specialized AI training.

Luther C. Harry, Honduran Minister of the National Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation, sees LATAM 4.0 as a path towards "technological sovereignty" for Latin America, highlighting regional integration and workforce.

Although Honduras has some limitations in infrastructure, resources, and data quality that might hinder AI development, continued international collaboration and public-private partnerships are accelerating AI adoption in the country. 

According to a study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), artificial intelligence can facilitate trade negotiations and add one additional percentage point of growth to Latin American and the Caribbean economies.

Artificial intelligence can bring this about by analyzing vast amounts of data relating to trade flows, tariffs, rules of origin, and sanitary regulations, among others. Artificial intelligence can help find consensus areas in tough multilateral trade negotiations. With the help of anticipatory analytical tools, artificial intelligence can also construct sophisticated predictive regional trade scenarios. Artificial intelligence models have a 300 percent greater predictive capacity than traditional econometric models.