Delegates from the Latin American and Caribbean countries participating in the Fourth Meeting of the Conference on Science, Innovation and Information and Communications Technologies of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) agreed this Friday, April 5, 2024 on a regional cooperation agenda for the next two years, which seeks, among other things, to decisively address the productivity challenge of the region.
The meeting, organized jointly with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Colombia, brought together senior authorities from 22 ECLAC member states (Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Dominican Republic, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkiye, Uruguay and Venezuela) and more than 300 representatives of international organizations, the scientific community, academia , the private sector and civil society.
As detailed in the Conference resolution, the delegates approved the 2024-2025 lines of work that were presented in the document Science, technology and innovation for sustainable and inclusive productive development: guidelines for the period 2024-2025 to define a biennial program of regional and international cooperation activities in support of science, technology and innovation policies.
These lines of work are: i) science, technology and innovation (STI) instruments for sustainable and inclusive productive development; ii) governance of science, technology and innovation; iii) science, technology and innovation with a territorial focus, and iv) sectoral and technological strategic agendas.
Additionally, it was decided to establish working groups for each of these approved lines of action.
The closing day of the Conference, whose main theme was “science, technology and innovation for productive development”, was attended by Luis F. Yáñez, Secretary of ECLAC, and Yesenia Olaya, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation of Colombia.
“We agree that science, technology and innovation policies are connected to other development policies, both for their impact on increasing productivity and for their contribution to the creation of new sectors and the necessary recovery of growth in the region. “, indicated Luis F. Yáñez, highlighting the resolution approved in Colombia, which, he said, “opens the way for collaborative and multi-actor work.”
“We see with satisfaction how a path for robust work in the region on these issues is opening up here, under the leadership of Colombia. We reiterate the availability of ECLAC to accompany the process,” said Yáñez, representing the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs.
Minister Yesenia Olaya valued the debates held in Bogotá on topics such as investment, governance, territorial approaches and productive development for science, technology and innovation in the region, as well as the results obtained in the two days of work. “From Colombia I want to reaffirm our commitment to promote cooperation in STI, with an inclusive, differential and territorial approach, which puts the most vulnerable and marginalized communities in our countries at the center,” she stressed.
The Executive Committee of the Conference was made up of Colombia in the Presidency and Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela in the Vice-Presidencies. Brazil's offer to host the Fifth Meeting of the Conference was also approved.
