Financing + Innovation = Productivity in Latin America

Access to credit, intermediation margins and other measurements that make up the Index of Financial Development prepared by the IMF still show poor performance in most Latin American countries. These aspects result in a worse selection of companies in the economies, as well as a higher prevalence of smaller companies that are less integrated into global markets and have a smaller capacity for innovation, which partly explains the low productivity levels in these countries.

Latin America needs to design and implement an institutional reform agenda with a focus on productivity. Also, the financial system requires some regulatory adjustments such as bankruptcy proceedings, which for example in Brazil have led to a better performance of the credit market. Inclusion and financial literacy is another issue in which the region has plenty of room for improvement. This would lead not only to an expansion in users of the financial system but also better use of the available instruments.

“Taking into account the potential benefits of inclusion and financial literacy, institutions such as CAF are advancing programs to help countries measure financial literacy, as well as programs that seek to increase inclusion and capabilities in this regard across nations,” said Luis Carranza, CAF executive president.

Financing plays a fundamental role in companies’ decisions on growth and innovation, which have a positive impact on productivity and the economy as a whole. This will be one of the cross-cutting themes to be addressed at the CAF Conference: Productivity and Innovation for Development, which will be held on November 7-8 in Bogota, Colombia.

This Conference will feature José Manuel Restrepo, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of Colombia; Jeffrey Kratz, general manager for Latin America, Canada and the Caribbean at Amazon; Kyoo Sung Noh, President of the Korea Productivity Center; Federico Gutiérrez, Mayor of Medellín, Ric Gros, CEO of METS Ignited (Australia); Dyogo de Oliveira, President of the BNDES (Brazil); Sebastián Sichel, Executive Vice President of CORFO (Chile); Jorge López Lafuente, President of Grupo Jala (Bolivia); María Lorena Gutiérrez, President of Corficolombiana; Óscar Cabrera, CEO of BBVA Colombia; Rocío Fonseca, Innovation Manager at CORFO and former Executive Director of Start-up Chile; Fernando De Fuentes, President of Anima Studios (Mexico); Colombian chef Leonor Espinosa; Luis Felipe López-Calva, regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean at UNDP; José Manuel Salazar, regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the ILO; Carlos Heeren, executive director of the University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC, Peru); and Eduardo Levy, Dean of the School of Governance of the Universidad Torcuato di Tella in Argentina; among others.

Click here for more information and to sign up for the Conference free of charge. You can also follow the event live within the region and make comments with the hashtag #ProductividadCAF.

Related content:

-Productivity and innovation will be the main themes for CAF Conference in Colombia

-The potential of natural resources and their impact on Latin American productivity