OAS-US Tour Inspires Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Following a
week-long tour of economic development sites and innovation centers
in the Midwest United States, the
Third Americas Competitiveness Exchange on Innovation and
Entrepreneurship (ACE),
co-organized by the OAS,
came to a conclusion on April 24. High-level participants included
47 Ministers, Vice-ministers, private sector and academic
leaders
from 27 countries of the Americas, interested in exploring
opportunities to increase trade with participating economies,
accelerate business development, and further collaboration with
different stakeholders.
During this
Third ACE
held from April 19 to 24, participants learned first-hand about
innovation and high technology centers, public-private alliances,
and strategic investments in a total of three States and nine cities
in the United States, including Minneapolis and Rochester,
Minnesota; LaCrosse, Viroqua, Gays Mills, Westby, Madison and
Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Chicago, Illinois. Local authorities were
on hand to meet the international visitors in each city, and
showcased their particular model of supporting business development.
Participants
were given
to opportunity to learn
about food programs at the University of Minnesota; visited the Mayo
Clinic Health System, the largest not-for-profit medical group
practice in the world; learned about the farmer-owned cooperative
model of a creamery in Westby, and the operations of a multi-tenant
food enterprise center in Viroqua. Other sites included EPIC, a
private healthcare software company that produces electronic health
records for over 50% of the nation’s market share, and the Argonne
National Laboratory, where world-renowned scientist and engineers
are researching solutions to challenges in clean energy,
environment, technology and national security, to name some of the
40 plus economic development sites visited during the tour.
Upon
returning to their cities and countries of origin, participants have
expressed a desire to engage in new projects and establishing
long-term strategic partnerships with site hosts and others whom
attended the Exchange. For example, the Manager of the Small
Business Development Centers in Belize, Nilda Riverol, is seeking to
replicate food incubators in her country. Likewise, Zoila Castillo
from the Technological University of Panama will explore
collaboration with the Water Council in Wisconsin and Big Data in
Illinois, and Ricardo Irias, entrepreneur, founder and CEO of
Grupo Nueva Higueras in
Honduras is interested in launching a co-work space to support
social-tech startups.
Bringing the
week’s
activities to a close, Ambassador Niermala Badrising, Chair of
the Inter-American Council for Integral Development and Permanent
Representative of Suriname to the Organization of American and
States, acknowledged that the Exchange offered the opportunity to
learn from the types of innovative approaches required in the
region, and praised participant’s engagement “I believe that this is
an excellent opportunity to promote high-value regional development,
which builds on mutually beneficial cooperation. Your participation
and the laudable efforts of our hosts, should allow us to build
significant momentum towards achieving the fundamental goals of this
Exchange.”
The
success of this
third gathering of the ACE has already prompted discussion among the
organizing partners on future collaborative efforts to ensure that
the Exchange continues to be offered in Member States, through the
Inter-American Competitiveness Network (RIAC). As stated by U.S.
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, Jay
Williams, “the idea is to continue the Exchange for hopefully many
years to come” highlighting it as a “valuable experience” that
showcases the best of public-private partnerships and the
collaboration with the Organization of American States. “We are
excited about the future opportunities of the ACE Exchange,” he
concluded.
ACE is
co-organized by the OAS, as Technical Secretariat of the
Inter-American Competitiveness Network (RIAC), as a mechanism to
support high-level decision makers to establish long-term regional
partnerships and to deepen the exchange of good practices in
strengthening innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems. The
Exchange is part of the Network’s Work Plan for 2015 and serves to
facilitate collaboration on the 150 successful experiences that OAS
Member States shared in the 2012-2014 Signs of Competitiveness
Americas Reports (www.riacreport.org).
Other
convening institutions of the Third ACE were the U.S. Department of
Commerce, through the International Trade Administration (ITA) and
the Economic Development Administration (EDA), the U.S. Department
of State, and the Government of Guatemala, as Chair Pro Tempore of
RIAC 2015. The program benefited from the financial support of the
Governments of the United States and Canada.