Productive transformation policies must be essential components of urban development to achieve advances in equity

(Medellin, April 10^th, 2014). International experts in the analysis and design of productive transformation policies in Asia, Africa and Latin America, met during the VII World Urban Forum, where they presented the preliminary results of the study carried out by CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, UN Habitat, and UN ESCAP, analyzing the cases of Lima and Quito in Latin America, Dili and Ho Chi Minh, in Asia, And Cape Town and Nairobi, in Africa. 

During the panel Políticas de Transformación Productiva en Africa, Asia y America Latina (Productive Transformation Policies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America), CAF's Director Representative in Colombia, L. Víctor Traverso indicated that "currently, cities need to provide more attention to economic clusters as centers of private activity that must promote globally competitive enterprises". 

At the same time, Marco Kamiya, CAF's specialist in Public Policies and Competitiveness, referred to the cases of Quito and Lima in Latin America, stating that "increasingly, the governments of the region are supporting the private sector and sectorial policy in the urban planning of its cities as drivers of growth and equity", and added that "productive transformation enables advances in gender issues, provides employment, and promotes small enterprises by encouraging entrepreneurships, improving equity in the cities". 

As a moderator in the panel, Gulelat Kebede, Director of the Urban Economics Department of UN Habitat, stated that the productive dimension is essential to achieve sustainable cities, both from the perspective of productive enterprises, as well as to improve the incomes of social governments, by becoming headquarters of enterprises that produce and export. 

Finally, Ivan Turok, professor at the University of Cape Town, in South Africa, presented the cases of Cape Town and Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, and stated that the productive transformation policies are dissimilar, but there is an increasing interest in National Urban Development programs that establish the basis for a medium and long-term comprehensive intervention in the cities. 

The event also included the participation of commentators such as Andres Almeida, Director of America Economia Intelligence;  Horacio Terraza, coordinator of the Inter-American Development Bank's Sustainable Cities program; and Brian Roberts, advisor to the Asian Development Bank and Director of Land Equity Institute of Australia, among others.