In accordance with the Declaration which they adopted, Ministers and Heads of Delegation of Latin American, Caribbean and European Union countries and the European Commission representative, present at the III LAC-EU Ministerial Forum on the Information Society, held on 22-23 November 2004 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, understand that there is ample room for collaboration between both regions in the field of the Information Society. They are therefore committed to set up an alliance for social cohesion through digital inclusion, having as a basis the execution of the following activities from the upcoming year:

1. Following the example of the European Union, and considering its own realities, Latin American and Caribbean countries will assess the possibilities of a coherent regional Information Society strategy, to be presented at the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), in Tunis.  This initiative will receive the support of the @LIS programme, through the project “Policy and Regulatory Dialogue”, implemented by ECLAC, United Nations, and through which knowledge exchange between the two regions will be promoted.
2. In accordance with the WSIS Plan of Action, the LAC-EU dialogue will support the development and deepening of national e-strategies, including appropriate programmes for human capacity building in accordance with national and regional specificities.
3. As foreseen in the WSIS Plan of Action, the benchmarking practice and the elaboration of realistic criteria for international performance evaluation (both qualitative and quantitative), based on comparable indicators and on objective research results, will be an important part of the bi-regional work program. The eEurope benchmarking methodologies will provide an important reference in this regard.
4. The bi-regional dialogue on Information Society will rely on the creation and maintenance of virtual committees facilitated by web and videoconferencing. Those committees will be open to the participation of governments, private sector, civil society and the academic sector from the two regions.
5. Telecommunications regulatory authorities in both regions will pursue the dialogue, in accordance with the joint declaration adopted at the III Summit of Presidents of REGULATEL and IRG, which took place on the 18-19 November 2004 in Cusco, Peru.
6. Both regions will promote exchange of experiences on standards, exploiting the opportunities offered by open technological standards and their use as a tool for social inclusion, regional integration and interoperability of systems and services.
7. The interconnection of Latin American and European research and education networks, launched at this Ministerial Forum and managed by DANTE and CLARA, should be expanded to other countries in the region.  Recognize the importance of pursuing the joint efforts for the sustainability and future development of the CLARA network and its connection with Europe.
8. Cooperation on ICT research & development will be strengthened, exploiting the new possibilities offered by the interconnection of research and education networks. This cooperation can be supported by funds within the ICT related programmes of the European Union, in order to promote the participation of Latin American and Caribbean partners in R&D projects and technology transfer, in the form of consortia with European Union entities.
9. Bi-regional cooperation will be focused in projects and programmes taking into account the fields identified in the Declaration of Rio de Janeiro, adopted at this Forum.
10. Progress made on the implementation of this bi-regional work program will be evaluated at the IV LAC-EU Ministerial Forum on Information Society, to be held before the next LAC-EU Summit of Heads of State and Government which will take place in Austria at the first semester of 2006.