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Versión Español | april 2014

SEDI News

Testimonials – “First Americas Competitiveness Exchange on Innovation and Entrepreneurship”

Participants of the Exchange shared their experience with the OAS. This week-long tour invited high-level representatives from Latin America and the Caribbean to innovation hubs in the Southeast United States from March 31 to April 4, 2014. 

The event was organized by the OAS-SEDI through the Inter-American Competitiveness Network (RIAC) and the U.S. government through the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA), the Economic Development Administration (EDA) and State Department.

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Name: Claudine Tracey
Title: General Manager of Strategic Services at the Development Bank of Jamaica


This activity has been tremendously useful. It has shown how each city, how each town has its own unique approach to building its business people, using innovation, using entrepreneurship to promote sustainable economic growth for each area. So it has been extremely useful in terms of grabbing lessons that we can implement in Jamaica. 

I see possible links for collaboration with other countries. I see the potential for collaboration for our small businesses and a widening of opportunities for incubation and product testing. These opportunities can ultimately promote and facilitate greater trade between participating countries. I also see collaboration at the governmental level for further interaction and further sharing of knowledge and best practices.

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Name: Ana Laffite Licona
Title:
Vice Principal - Unitec, Honduras
 

The exchange has been widely useful, especially in my industry -private higher education. In our UNITEC campus in San Pedro Sula we are beginning to develop a “smart city” concept, with technology and business parks revolving around the university. Therefore, understanding the integration of academia and industry through practical examples after our visits is very useful and productive, providing new ideas and helping us assess our progress to get to the next phase.  

I see concrete opportunities for subsequent collaborative actions. For me, it was especially useful to make connections with members from other universities in order to promote our university’s international programs.

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photo of Matt S. Erskine, Deputy Assistant Secretary
Name: Matt Erskine
Title:
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development 

This exchange has been tremendous in terms of sharing best practices in innovation in economic development with our western hemisphere partners.  We were proud to showcase the amazing work that´s being done in the United States to spur innovation and create the jobs of the future.  I thank our partners in Atlanta, Greenville, Conover, Charlotte, and Kannapolis for inviting us to see their projects first-hand and for demonstrating how important wide, regional collaboration was to ensuring success. 

We hope this is the beginning of continued viable conversations and partnerships moving forward.

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anne-reid
Name: Anne Reid
Title : CEO of the Barbados Private Sector Association


This Exchange has really not just fulfilled, but has exceeded my expectations. I understood it was an exchange on entrepreneurship and innovation and that information will be shared that you can pass on. However, what I’m really so excited about and what has really exceeded my expectations is the quality of the presentations, the exposure to facilities such as I have not seen before and the networking opportunities. This Exchange was organised and information presented in a manner that made it easy to understand within a week how best to transfer the knowledge to your own nation.  

The presentations focused mainly on building economic development and job creation through private-public partnerships.  This information is very relevant to our island Barbados at this particular point in time. We need a new vision for the future.  The knowledge gained and the exposure to the various facilities we visited makes it easier to contribute to the crafting of that vision and it gave valuable insight into the implementation process.
 

We saw that communities facing economic challenges didn’t just get disheartened, but they got together, they partnered, they collaborated, showing the power of networking.  The enthusiasm that these persons showed, and which communities now have when they have seen the finished project, was an encouragement. We also saw that enthusiasm didn’t come when success was attained but it was what actually propelled them through the difficult time.  We were reminded that change is a difficult process but if you keep at it there will be the reward on the other side.
 

Having participated in the Exchange I am more motivated to encourage stakeholders to collaborate more to drive entrepreneurship and innovation through public private partnerships. This is important as the emphasis needs to be on team-work, as one presenter said so eloquently “We don’t need to be that one person to take the credit. We all can take the credit.”  I must add that the value of team work was well demonstrated by the organizers of this Competitiveness Exchange. Thank you so much for the opportunity to participate.

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Name: Dr. Rikhiraj Permanand
Title:
Executive Director of the Economic Development Board and Council for Competitiveness and Innovation from Trinidad and Tobago
  

This Exchange has been very useful as we got an opportunity to understand how large cities and rural areas have been able to transform their economies and how we can use and develop innovation to create sustainable economic development. The importance of STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math - as part of the education curriculum from kindergarten to tertiary education, the transfer of technology from universities to the private sector and the importance of developing entrepreneurs through incubators and business accelerators have clearly been demonstrated as pathways for successful economic growth. 


I leave the Exchange with a commitment to collaborate with my counterparts who participated in this programme as well as those who were kind enough to give of their time to showcase their initiatives in Atlanta and North and South Carolina. Specifically, I want to understand the ATDC ‘Start Up Gauntlet’ boot camp for start-up entrepreneurs for application in Trinidad & Tobago; to obtain the survey instrument developed for the Manufacturing Extension Programme and apply to manufacturers in Trinidad & Tobago and to review the Cabarrus PPP Economic Development model in the context of the EDB in Trinidad & Tobago.  
 

This exchange comes at a timely moment as Trinidad & Tobago prepares to host the VIII Americas Competitiveness Forum, which will take place from October 8 to 10, 2014 in Port-of-Spain under the theme “Human Imagination at Work – Driving Innovation and Competitiveness”. What we have been show demonstrates that the world is changing rapidly and to stay ahead we need to innovate through collaboration between academia, private sector and public sector.

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Name: Thomas Guevara
Title:
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regional Affairs, U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration 


I think this has been a fabulous exchange. The exchange far exceeded our expectations as a vehicle for increasing the dialogue between the United States and Latin American and Caribbean countries and members of the OAS and to further hands-on opportunities for mutual investment and trade. Critically, based on the feedback that I received from the participants, the exchange went way beyond our expectations in terms of generating excitement, opportunities and dialogue.  I consider this is just the beginning as opposed to the end of our engagement.
 

When we exchange best practices, when we exchange ideas, when we exchange contexts and develop relationships between various countries, parties, and organizations, it promotes greater opportunity for future investment that will benefit the entire hemisphere. That was our goal. 

We will continue to share best practices and continue to develop relationships where individuals and the countries and the organizations they represent will have further opportunities to engage and, perhaps, develop mutually beneficial projects going forward.  We look forward to staying in touch and continuing this critical dialogue.

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Name: Andrés Córdoba
Title:
President of Ecuador’s College of Textile Engineers  

The exchange is very timely for Ecuador, as it develops a new economic model based on productive relations, in which entrepreneurs’ involvement is substantial as the basis for this change.  


We consider this Exchange very useful and hope that with the help of the OAS and the Department of Commerce of the United States we will have the opportunity to develop some actions. Specifically, we would like to replicate the model followed by the Manufacturing Solutions Center in the Textile and Apparel Production Development Centre of Ecuador as they both share similar elements.
  

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Name: Jalima Gómez
Title:
Manager of the National Exportable Supply of ProNicaragua, Official Government Agency for Investment and Export Promotion  

This exchange has been very enriching. The visits to different companies, institutions, universities and research centers provided us with a lot of knowledge and interesting ideas that can be developed in our own countries. Participating was worthwhile for Nicaragua and I see potential for future collaboration. 

There is much to follow-up on, such as the network of contacts and support developed, both from the United States and other participating countries. Also, we had the opportunity to meet and learn from different companies and agencies with extensive expertise in their fields. 

The experience has been very rewarding as it has given us knowledge that will definitely allow us to undertake better actions. Education is necessarily the beginning of the process to develop a country, and through this exchange we have been able to absorb knowledge and innovation elements to bring to our institutions.

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Name: Tamara Vasquez
Title:
Coordinator of the areas of Innovation and Sustainable Tourism, National Competitiveness Council of Dominican Republic 

This Exchange, organized by the RIAC, has been an impactful activity. Experiencing the dynamics and the relationships between the public sector, private sector and academia is certainly a great practice for us to take back to our country. The relationships and contacts made with different actors are also fundamental, as they may become key strategic partners in the short term to develop activities in the country through the Council. 

For the Dominican Republic, an important part of these visits is to experience and learn about the efforts undertaken through incubators and business acceleration initiatives, so that we may assess the types of efforts that we can adapt. 

The Exchange and the opportunity to share with colleagues from other countries in the region is undoubtedly a unique networking experience. 19 countries are here, most of which share common interests and realities. Therefore, the value of the exchange is unquestionable. With Mexico, for example, we had great exchanges and there are also good practices in other countries that could certainly be developed.

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Guillermo FernándezName: Guillermo Fernández De la Garza
Title:
Executive Director, Mexico-United States Foundation for Science (FUMEC) 

This exchange has been very useful. There was an excellent selection of locations and the interviews with experts have been very enriching, with great interest from the people who manage the programs visited. This open and very positive attitude is appreciated, as it will surely facilitate ongoing exchanges. 

This Exchange has also been very helpful for Mexico. What I see here is precisely the possibility to build on the communications and contacts that we have had, so that we can begin to establish a set of arrangements for Mexican specialists come to see the facilities and the programs that are here, certainly looking to establish programs with future reach.

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