Cisco and Mexican Government to Work Together to Foster Socio-Economic Development in Mexico

Education, Digital Government and Rural Connectivity at Heart of Understandings.

MEXICO CITY. - Cisco and the Mexican government today announced three strategic memoranda of understanding to kick off cooperation to help the country advance in terms of global competitiveness and gross domestic product by 2025.

At a meeting held at the official presidential residence, Los Pinos, in Mexico City, in the presence of President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers signed collaborative memoranda of understanding with Secretary of Education Alonso Lujambio Irazabal, Secretary of Economy Gerardo Ruiz Mateos and Secretary of Social Development, Ernesto Cordero Arroyo.

The memoranda outline a series of steps to begin working together to improve the competitiveness of the Mexican economy, deepen the country’s technical talent pool and promote digital inclusion.

“Today’s collaboration with President Calderon’s administration underscores the importance that Cisco places on Mexico,” said Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers. “With business and government working together we can make a positive impact on education, facilitate greater effectiveness in government, and further extend broadband to rural areas. With the network as the platform, we have the potential to bring even greater opportunity to Mexico and its citizens.”

These memoranda are aligned with Cisco’s globalization strategy of supporting sustainable growth, innovation and talent development in key global economies.
Education:

Among the goals which Cisco plans to pursue in the collaboration described in the memoranda are:

* Cooperation with the Secretaria of Public Education to establish two pilot programs to help improve the teaching of 21st-century skills in basic and middle education by increasing the competency, productivity and professional development of educators.
* Establishment of a co-operative Education Center of Excellence within Mexico, incorporating leading universities, global education experts from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other leading non-governmental organizations. Its objective will be to help carry out the transformation of Mexico’s education strategy.
* Support for a 21st-Century collaboration environment with education leaders worldwide through the Cisco® 3.0 Leadership Program and a Cisco TelePresenceTM for Education Network with key universities around the world.

Digital Government:

* Cisco will establish a Center for Competitiveness and Globalization working together with the Secretaria of Economy to share best practices and to support the government in the design and implementation of programs aimed at providing government services more efficiently.
* The objective is to develop a “one-stop solution” for maximizing collaborative work among government agencies to achieve substantial improvements in competitiveness.

Rural Connectivity:

* Cisco will develop programs for rural connectivity in collaboration with the Secretaria of Social Development, international multilateral agencies and private companies. The programs will focus on deploying infrastructure to provide access to voice, video and data services for rural populations at sustainable economic levels.
* Cisco will support the preparation and implementation of a business model to design and prototype an inexpensive and scalable wireless network solution to bring affordable broadband connectivity to rural communities in the region of Yucatán, Mexico. The initial pilot project is expected to include ten sites.

“We’re pleased to work together with the federal government in Mexico to implement these initiatives that should bring about swift economic change,” stated Jaime Valles, vice president of Cisco Latin America. “The ability to help educational and governmental institutions around the country take advantage of the network to promote 21st-century learning skills and develop collaborative work in government is a tremendous opportunity. We’re pleased that the federal government in Mexico shares this vision and is committed to implementing these programs.”