ECLAC contributes to the training of managers of cluster initiatives that are members of the IAPT Community in Colombia

This programme, launched in April 2024, aimed to strengthen the capacities of actors involved in cluster initiatives, providing strategic tools and promoting the transfer of knowledge and best practices.

The training space included a total of 21 sessions focused on key topics such as strategic analysis of competitiveness, cluster management, identification of relevant actors and the creation of strategies to promote inter-cluster collaboration. Among the trainers, the participation of Yeinni Andrea Patiño, Vice President of Competitiveness and Cooperation of Confecámaras, and Daissy Salcedo, Director of the Colombia Cluster Network, stood out, as well as international experts such as Alberto Pezzi from the Competitiveness Agency of the Government of Catalonia (ACCIÓ); David Fernández from the Basque Agency for Business Development (SPRI) and Marco Dini, Economic Affairs Officer of the Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

In particular, ECLAC contributed with sessions that addressed the political and economic context of Latin America and the Caribbean, highlighting the importance of joint work through the Cluster Initiatives Platform and other Territorial Productive Articulation Initiatives (IAPT). This initiative seeks to give visibility and interconnect people and institutions in the region that promote territorial productive development and participatory management of common actions.

The program culminated with the participation of more than 90 professionals from chambers of commerce and entities that coordinate cluster strategies from 21 departments of Colombia, who now have greater skills to consolidate their clusters as drivers of regional economic development.

In line with the efforts that ECLAC promotes through the Platform, in order to promote the meeting between the actors who manage these initiatives from different territories and countries, the Chamber of Commerce of Cúcuta as host entity together with the main cluster promoters of the country, will hold on September 26 and 27 of this year, the 9th National Congress of Cluster Initiatives “Path to the reindustrialization of the territories”whose objective is to promote the exchange of knowledge, experiences and best practices among key actors in the business, academic and government ecosystem.