Connecting people, increasing access to information and supporting the development of communities are some of the main contributions that Information Technology and Communication bring to society. In order to leverage these benefits, the Digital Cities Program is being implemented in the municipalities of Piraí do Norte and Nilo Peçanha, located in the Bahia Southern Lowlands. The initiative of the Brazilian Ministry of Communications (MiniCom) allows for the installation of infrastructure for network connections at public agencies, server training and also free Internet access spaces for the community.

The first phase, which was completed in September, involves the installation of optic fibers that make the connection possible. “Nilo Peçanha and Piraí do Norte will be the first assisted by the program, which helps improve administrative processes and also promotes the development of technology in Brazil,” said Alaécio Santos, representative of MiniCom.

With the conclusion of this phase, the servers will then be trained to use the software packages that will be incorporated in the financial, tax, education and health areas of the municipalities. Furthermore, free Internet network access is already available to the population in the cities’ public squares. “Our community will be benefited with the professionalization of communication,” said Carlos Azevedo, Mayor of Nilo Peçanha. “It is a major advance,” he said.

The Digital Cities Program selected 80 of the 190 municipalities that signed up in different Brazilian states, evaluated based on their management and technical capacity, having a population of up to 50,000 inhabitants and expansion of the network. The participation by Nilo Peçanha and Piraí do Norte was supported by the Pratigi Environmental Protection Area Inter-Municipal Consortium (CIAPRA).

Formed by three more cities – Ibirapitanga, Igrapiúna and Ituberá -, CIAPRA helps implement federal and state government public policies for the cities it represents. It works in synergy with the Pratigi EPA Guardian Association, which is part of Bahia Southern Lowlands Environmental Protection Area Mosaic Program for Development and Growth Integrated with Sustainability (PDCIS), supported by the Odebrecht Foundation and public and private partners by CIAPRA itself.