The trend of multi-sector, accelerated digital transformation recently gripped the Asia-Pacific region. Now, it looks like Latin America is poised to continue in that same trajectory, reaping the myriad of benefits to be had, according to Jaime Valles (pictured), vice president for Latin America at Amazon Web Services Inc.

“Across the region, we’re seeing this momentum with large enterprise companies leveraging the cloud to transform their customer experiences, to drive innovation,” Valles said. “We’re also seeing startups driving competitiveness and trying to compete with the world. And that’s enabling the younger generation to move faster, to innovate, to dream big and drive new ideas.”

Valles spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during AWS re:Invent. They discussed the rapid adoption of cloud technologies across Latin American markets and the challenges that organizations have experienced. (* Disclosure below.)

Driving growth and competition at scale

With enterprise companies and businesses, the cloud-first approach improves efficiencies, increases growth, and drives a higher bottom line. In a region with over 17 million companies, these potential benefits are leading to the increased global competitiveness of Latin American companies across multiple metrics, according to Valles.

“First, we have Mercado Libre that is competing with very large companies. There’s also Bank Colombia and GBM in Mexico,” he said. “So what we’re seeing is our companies being able, by leveraging the latest and best technology, to compete with the world and to drive that competitiveness that we need.”

One important trend that can be seen across the region is an ingrained understanding of the cultural element of digital transformation, according to Valles. Companies now understand that it’s about taking the employee and customers’ points of view and melding them into a conscientious, tech-driven cloud strategy.

With the number of human resources and talent on offer in the continent, the next few years will see AWS invest in nurturing the next generation of cloud experts to mitigate any skill shortages, Valles concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of AWS re:Invent. (* Disclosure: Amazon Web Services Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither AWS nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE