June 14, 2005 – Washington, DC. The inauguration ceremony of the Distance Learning Center in Paraguay was made with different personalities from the government, civil society, university and multilateral organizations attending, something that reflected the collaborative character of the GDLN.

On June 13, 2005 there was the inauguration ceremony of the new GDLN center in Paraguay, a center that has been possible thanks to the close collaboration between the Universidad Católica and the Centro de Análisis y Difusión de la Economía Paraguaya, as well as the World Bank and the Government from Paraguay.

According to the Executive Director of Paraguay at the World Bank, Jaime Quijandría, the center allows to “offer citizens a tool to learn and share experiences”. He also asked to work “in coordination with the network in Latin America to incorporate more experiences and increase the richness of the network”.

From Argentina, the Distance Learning Center Director Ms. Silvia Szejer de Pfeifer emphasized the role of the network to facilitate the confluence of three fundamental factors: education and development; education and new information technologies, as well as the real impact of the network in the transformation of national borders in the regions. She also offered her support to work together with the Distance Learning Center in Paraguay.

The Vice-president for Latin America and the Caribbean of the World Bank, Pamela Cox, highlighted the importance of the Distance Learning Centers to promote knowledge sharing among countries, an exchange that is not only from the World Bank towards the region, but also within the region; a knowledge that can be used in the region as well as internationally. According to Pamela Cox, GDLN is the perfect tool for that exchange. Also, she admitted she’s a big fan of the GDLN centers in the region.

The Distance Learning Center Director in Paraguay, Javier Cosp, who also works at the Centro de Análisis y Difusión Económica Paraguaya, before inaugurating the Center has been doing courses on public management with the support of the World Bank. Programs like those, offered both by the Análisis y Difusión Económica Paraguaya and the Universidad Católica, will soon be expanded and strengthened through the Learning Center.

The interventions, together with those of the Deputy Minister of Educación and the Director of Paraguay of the World Bank, pointed towards the importance of the intense collaboration between different social agents to promote GDLN as a tool of international cooperation ready to use by the society in Paraguay.

Press Release in ABC Paraguay (in Spanish only)