Carrying on with the work commenced in 2004, the OAS, the IDB and the IDRC, with the collaboration of the Government of Costa Rica, are pleased to organize the 2nd Meeting of Ministers and the 4th Meeting of High Authorities of Electronic Government to be held in San José, Costa Rica, on November 26 and 27 of this year.

During the Meeting of Ministers and High Authorities of Electronic Government in the Americas that took place in Montevideo in May 2009, the presentations and discussions showed information and communication technologies had started an unstoppable path towards the transformation of our society and our lives.

Throughout almost three years that went by since the last meeting of high hemispheric authorities on e-government, these new technologies we all have learnt to know as ICTs, have continued to show their extraordinary capacity to help governments not only to offer more and better services using less resources, but also to build more participative societies with a daily and bidirectional contact with citizens.

These motivating opportunities come together with new challenges that require regional e-government leaders to update the information they handle, exchange knowledge, and compare views regarding significant and changing topics such as open data, cloud computing, interoperability, and the legal framework related to these new technologies.