Carmen Ligia Valderrama Rojas is Colombia’s new ICT minister

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – This Tuesday (28), Iván Duque, President of Colombia, appointed Carmen Ligia Valderrama Rojas, who was previously Vice Minister of Transportation, as the new head of the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications (MinTic).

This news came three weeks after the formalization of Karen Abudinen’s resignation as a consequence of the scandal involving the awarding to the Temporary Union Centros Poblados the installation of 7,000 Digital Centers in rural schools and the advance of US$17.5 million for the start of works when, in fact, they did not have the papers in order.

“Dr. Valderrama is an expert in public administration, supervision, and oversight, contract law, and competition,” said Duque in his account on the social network Twitter, in whose thread he added that “I have instructed her to take forward all connectivity projects underway, advance in the training of the 100,000 programmers, bring high-speed Internet to 70 percent of the country in August 2022 and move forward in the consolidation of a digital economy and government.”

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Thus, the official assumes the role of commanding a strategic portfolio, which has many challenges ahead; among which stand out the design of the auction for the country to move towards the fifth-generation technology, as well as defining the fate of those 7,000 Digital Centers postponed and whose contract ETB is expected to sign and assume in December.

The local press also points out the responsibility that the ministry’s performance will have before the presidential elections that will take place during the second quarter of 2022.

Valderrama Rojas served as Deputy Minister of Transportation until the new appointment and, between 2018 and 2020, she was Superintendent of Transportation. Before that, between 2012 and 2013, she was appointed as delegated Superintendent of Industry and Commerce, among other public positions, and has taught at the Universidad Externado de Colombia.

The incoming minister specialized in Business Law at the Universidad Externado de Colombia; she holds a master’s degree in Business Law from the Garriguez & Andersen European Center for Business Studies and Training in Spain.