Innovation Experts Discuss International Experiences in Panama

Representatives from the public and private sectors and academia met in Panama during the Conference: “International Innovation Experiences,” a forum to discuss the importance of innovation management as a productive development catalyst and to encourage dialogue and build strategic partnerships to encourage innovation in the region.

The conference featured four panels with more than fifteen innovation experts from Latin America as well as representatives from Europe, who addressed issues related to the importance of business associations to foster innovation and establishing articulation networks; the relevance of devising public innovation policies and the need to create supporting financing instruments; the role of academia in identifying business needs and building capacities for innovation.

CAF Executive President Luis Carranza Ugarte said in his opening remarks: “One of the great tasks we have in Latin America is innovation. We have very good experiences in the region, but these are issues we have yet to standardize in our different countries, and that is precisely why CAF has brought together representatives of government, academia and private sector, to discuss our reality in the region, assess what we are doing and how CAF can support innovation with financial and non-financial instruments in a way that builds an innovation agenda that allows us to overcome stagnation in Latin America.”

The initiative is part of the actions CAF develops in the region in order to generate forums for debate and establish partnerships to replicate success stories in the field of productive innovation. As part of its enabling role, CAF provides technical support to meet specific demands, as well as project financing lines for national productive development and to boost competitiveness through innovation, a key tool for the region.

During the conference, some of the topics highlighted by panelists included the need to build consensus in the region among key sectors to promote an innovation ecosystem, as well as to provide funding lines to support consensus-based initiatives and the need to build a roadmap to start replicating success stories in each country in the region.