Productive clusters project ends successfully in Cuenca

(Cuenca, April 7^th, 2013). CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, together with Agencia Cuencana de Desarrollo, ACUDIR (Development Agency of Cuenca), presented the results of the projectLocal Productive Clusters in Cuenca, aimed at the competitive strengthening of the productive chains of wood furniture and appliances in this city and its surroundings.

For Hermann Krutzfeldt, CAF's Director Representative in Ecuador, "the project enabled the promotion of entrepreneurial development in the city of Cuenca and Azuay by strengthening the local productive capacities, improving the business climate, and developing a reforms agenda aimed at a more effective support for the relevant productive sectors in the region".

The project was conceived in 2011, following the strategic guidelines of CAF with respect to productive transformation, and is aligned with the national plan for changes in the productive matrix, becoming an essential model of other initiatives that are being developed throughout the country regarding this great national objective.

The approach of the project was comprehensive. From the productive point of view, it introduced specific improvements in the productive chains both for appliances and wood furniture, managing to reduce production times throughout the chain, improve productivity, and even substitute imports of specific pieces required for the assembly of the final products, for example, refrigerators, with improvements in quality and production costs.

In addition, the comprehensive perspective also addressed subjects related to businesses climate and the institutional capacity of all the public, private, academic, and mixed organizations that offer support services to the development of these productive activities.

The Local Productive Clusters are framed within a series of initiatives that CAF supports in the city of Cuenca, whose competitive potential is a model in other countries as, from the experience in Cuenca, it has been possible to replicate similar projects through CAF in Arequipa (Peru), and Barranquilla (Colombia).

One of the complementary projects that is already in its execution phase in Azuay is the conformation of the Innovation Ecosystem of the Construction Sector. In addition, CAF participates in the dialogue activities currently being developed to coordinate all the efforts in a competitive development plan for all the region.