Uruguay

Partners and Experts in Uruguay

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Uruguay in a nutshell

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguay)

Source : http://www.cia.gov

Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (Spanish: República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country located in the southeastern part of South America.

It is home to 3.46 million people, of whom 1.7 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area.

An estimated 80-88% of the population are of mostly European and/or mixed descent.

Uruguay's only land border is with Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, to the north. To the west lies the Uruguay River, to the southwest lies the estuary of Río de la Plata, with Argentina only a short commute across the banks of either of these bodies of water, while to the southeast lies the South Atlantic Ocean.

Uruguay is the second smallest country in South America, larger only than Suriname.

The economy is largely based on agriculture (making up 10% of GDP and the most substantial export) and the state sector. According to Transparency International, Uruguay is the least corrupt country in Latin America (along with Chile), with its political and labour conditions being among the freest on the continent.

Uruguay is one of the most economically developed countries in Latin America, with a high GDP per capita and the 47th highest quality of life in the world.

Uruguay consists of nineteen departments (departamentos, singular "departamento"). The first departments were formed in 1816 and the newest, Flores, dates from 1885. The departments are governed by an intendente municipal who is elected for five years. The members of the Departmental Assembly (Junta Departamental) form the legislative level of the department.

Uruguay is South America's most secular country. It has no official religion and church and state are separate.

Education in Uruguay

Compulsory education lasts for 10 years in Uruguay: one year of pre-primary [Inicial]; six years of primary school [Primaria] and three years of secondary [Medio]. The three compulsory years of secondary consist either of the Ciclo Básico [general education] or Formación Profesional Básica [basic vocational training].

Non-compulsory secondary and technical education may last a further two, three or five years: two years for the Formación Profesional Superior [higher level vocational training]; three years for the Bachillerato, which can be either a general or humanities-based programme [Diversificado] or specializing in STEM subjects [Tecnológico] and which forms the matriculation requirement for entrance to higher education [Terciario]; or five years for Técnico en Nivel Medio [intermediate level vocational training].

Tertiary education and training [Terciario] may involve four years of vocational or professional training [including teacher training, outside university [Técnico Nivel Medio y Superior or Formación de Maestros y Profesores]. University degree courses last from 3 to 6 years.

There are both public and private schools, technical institutes and universities – in public institutions education and training are free.

Each of the stages and pathways are administered by different departments of the National Public Education Administration.

Literacy rates are high and Uruguay has one of the most developed and sophisticated education systems of Hispanic American countries.

Sourced largely from the National Public Education Administration, Uruguay.

Further and Higher education

Universities in Uruguay

Wikipedia lists just five universities (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Uruguay):

1. Universidad Católica del Uruguay Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga - the only private university of the country for 11 years until 1996
2. Universidad de Montevideo - a private university
3. ORT Uruguay - said to be Uruguay's largest private university
4. University of the Republic - Uruguay's public university, and the country's largest, with a student body of more than 70,000 students; founded in 1849 in Montevideo, where most of its buildings and facilities are still located
5. Universitario Autónomo del Sur - founded in 1985 but with little information available on it

The Association of Universities of the Montevideo Group - La Asociación de Universidades Grupo Montevideo (AUGM) - is headquartered in Uruguay.

Information society

Broadband (sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_in_Uruguay)

Statistics of Internet:

• Internet users: 968,000 (2007)
• Internet Hosts: 480,593 (2007)
• Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 5 (1999)

In Uruguay, you can access the Internet mainly by using:

• DSL services, provided by the state owned telco company (ANTEL).
• One of the different Wireless ISP (which have a tendency to be more expensive because of high taxation and radio spectrum licenses costs).
• As an option, some shopping malls and other commercial business offer WiFi access at their location.
• Cyber cafes are very common throughout the whole country, and very inexpensive (from about U$S 0.4 an hour).
• 3G mobile internetm which is offered by all the mobile phone companies with rates of up to 3 Mbit/s - the 3G charges are similar to ADSL rates.
• Slower mobile internet service (EDGE and GPRS) is also offered by all mobile phone companies at very low flat rates.

ANTEL, a telco company owned by the government, charges U$S 50 a month (about U$S 600 a year) for a 1536 kbit/s/128 kbit/s ADSL service. That is one of the most expensive DSL services in the region (which includes Argentina, Brazil and Chile), while wages in Uruguay might be lower than in said countries. Also, the services dynamically changes the IP address of the customer every 12 hours, making it difficult to use for tele-working. Antel enjoys a monopoly in the basic telephony area, and has successfully prevented other competitors (such as Cable companies) from entering the Internet service provider business. ISP are then forced to use other technologies, such as radio, to get to customers. Usually, the taxation and licensees for radio spectrum are also very expensive, in a way to artificially not allow these ISP to be cost competitive with Antel DSL service.

References

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