The Communications and Information Technologies sector is one of the cluster areas with more growth potential, due to the fact that Puerto Rico possesses many assets it could bring to the C&IT Area.

Puerto Rico has unique ties to the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean. It shares the same language and cultural connections with many Latin American and Caribbean countries, while it is politically, economically and financial stable, integrated into the U.S. capital system. It also has the same legal and regulatory system as the United States (e.g., FDA DoD). In the educational area, key to the development of C&IT infrastructure, the University of Puerto Rico is among the top twenty granters of engineering degrees in the U.S.. The quality of its graduates is recognized by major firms and federal agencies.

In the area of Telecommunications infrastructure, the island has high bandwidth connections with the United States and pervasive optical infrastructure within Puerto Rico.

Currently, the island has some large, sophisticated customers, such as Banco Popular de PR (the fifth largest bank in the United States) and GM Group, regional leader in electronic transactions. In addition, many large technological multinational companies such as Hewlett Packard, Tycho, Oracle, Citi (Citibank), Microsoft and IBM already conduct business in Puerto Rico, thus facilitating the implementation of any technological protocols that are necessary.

Microsoft recently had a $ 65 million expansion in 2005-2006, making the island the company’s principal manufacturing center for all Vista and Office products intended for the Americas market.