Media Center

Press Release

OAS Co-organized Workshop in Costa Rica on Platform that Aims to Boost Competitiveness of MSMEs in the region

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the government of Costa Rica organized this week a regional workshop entitled "Promoting the Innovation and Competitiveness of MSMEs," which addressed the operations of the InnovaNet platform, which aims to create synergies between the public and private sectors to develop and enhance the competitiveness of the productive sectors of Latin America and the Caribbean.

In her address, the Director of the Department of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism of the OAS, Maryse Robert, said the region is behind compared to the rest of the world in terms of the innovation and competitiveness of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). She argued that the low innovative capacity of MSMEs is due in part to problems of national innovation systems in the region, as the percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the region focused on research and development (R and D) is some 0.5 percent, a figure well below the standards of developed countries and emerging countries that are migrating from the manufacturing sector to innovation-driven economies.

"Despite the good news about the recent economic performance of the region, we are aware that we still have much to do to become innovative global economies. There is neither connection nor progression between investment –public and private- in science, technology and innovation; between existing production capacity and market needs," said Robert at the workshop, which was held in San Jose, Costa Rica.

As Robert explained, the conclusions of the course focused on how much remains to be done in the sector because, in the opinion of the participants, in the Americas there are low value-added products and services with very short innovation cycles. What is investigated is not developed, is not protected by intellectual property, and is not produced and is not marketed. Collaboration networks between companies and universities and research centers are incipient.

Through the InnovaNet platform, which was created in September 2012, the OAS seeks to facilitate dialogue and exchange of best practices among OAS Member States, and implement specialized services to support SMEs with high potential, including those run by women, public and/or private universities, and centers of research and development in strategic economic sectors. The OAS also seeks to support the efforts of its Member States to develop the policy framework for creating public-private partnerships for innovation, including licensing and technology transfer.

During 2013, InnovaNet will support a number of practices for public, private and NGOs with programs to foster collaboration and technology transfer, licensing and commercialization of technology, incubation, and/or specialized services for high-potential SMEs in Central America. Following up on this project, the Innovanet experience in the region will be replicated in the Caribbean in 2014, in collaboration with other subregions of the Americas.

The workshop was attended by the Minister of Economy, Industry and Trade of Costa Rica, Mayi Antillón Guerrero; the Deputy Minister of Science and Technology of Costa Rica, Keilor Rojas; and representatives and officials from the public and private sectors of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic, which have programs on technology transfer and incubation. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) provided financial support for the implementation of this initiative.

The event took place within the framework of the Expopyme Costa Rica 2013, one of the many efforts being undertaken by the country and which have positioned it in 38th place in a list of 144 countries in terms of innovation, according to the Global Report compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-163/13