To achieve a more productive, inclusive and sustainable development pattern, it is urgent to scale up and improve productive development policies. It is something that goes to the heart of the development models in the region, and that is essential for its transformation, agreed today authorities and experts gathered at the CAF-ECLAC Annual Conference 2024which is held at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile.
The high-level event, which on this occasion is titled “The challenge of scaling and improving productive development policies in Latin America and the Caribbean,” brings together Ministers and Vice Ministers of Economy, Commerce, Industry and senior executives and experts from regional organizations and multilaterals, to reflect and delve into the fronts that allow progress in the design and implementation of a regional agenda of productive development policies that guides national and subnational governments, academia, private actors and other actors in society. civil society in the region in generating joint actions for sustainable and inclusive productive development.
The meeting was inaugurated by José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC, and Sergio Díaz-Granados, Executive President of CAF – development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, and included a panel of authorities on development policies productive in Latin America and the Caribbean that included the participation of Nicolás Grau, Minister of Economy, Development and Tourism of Chile; José Antonio Ocampo, Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and former Minister of Finance of Colombia; Soraya Caro, Vice Minister of Business Development of Colombia; and Gonzalo Rivas, Head of the Competitiveness, Technology and Innovation Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
In his welcoming words, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, recalled that the root of the problem is that the region is characterized by being mired in a very low growth syndrome or trap that has already existed for a decade. He stressed that growth per se is not everything, since it is about having inclusive growth, that is, one that reduces poverty and informality and that generates good jobs and creates an environment more conducive to reducing inequality, and also that it is growth green and sustainable, that is, friendly to nature and the planet.
“If the region invests enough in the transition towards renewable energies, electromobility, the circular economy, towards more dynamic sectors that drive growth, such as the care society, among others, and advances towards these transformations, the result will necessarily be to be higher and more sustained growth, more diversified, and more technologically sophisticated. And this is what productive development policies are about. It is about inducing dynamism and transformation in the economy and society. Because it is in productive development policies where the toolbox is to guide growth in certain directions and towards higher and sustained rates, that is, to influence the processes of economic transformation towards more inclusive and sustainable development patterns,” declared.
“At ECLAC we have been saying that it will not be enough to insist that our countries and their territories must scale up and improve their productive development policies. It will be key to delve into the 'whats' and 'hows' behind such a postulate. That is why we understand the space we organize today as a new opportunity for these reflections. But also as a moment to promote renewed collaboration not only between CAF and ECLAC on productive development policies, but also between public and private actors in the region,” added the senior United Nations official.
For his part, Sergio Díaz-Granados, Executive President of CAF – development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, indicated that “the region remains trapped in low productivity that limits its growth and, therefore, the possibility of achieving the objectives.” overcoming poverty, greater equity and, ultimately, greater well-being for our citizens. That is why we value the relevance of this type of debate where our commitment is to focus all our efforts on supporting this transition that the region needs, leveraged to this challenge of moving towards sustainable development.”
In the first session on productive development policies in the region, the ministers, vice ministers and authorities present stressed the importance of advancing on issues such as institutional capacities, technological development, financing, productive chains, support for small producers and tax incentives to reverse the stagnation of productivity that is seen in most countries in the region and to be able to articulate productive development policies that, ultimately, allow improving the well-being of all people, which is its ultimate objective .
The CAF-ECLAC Annual Conference continued with four sessions on topics such as the role of development banks in productive development agendas; productive development policies with a territorial approach and cluster initiatives; closing human talent gaps for productive development; and the opportunities for collaboration between governments, the private sector, development banks and other relevant actors to scale and improve productive development policies in the region.
