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(18 June 2013) In the Rio de Janeiro Declaration, signed today in Brazil, a group of Latin American and Caribbean countries decided to promote industrial policies to boost strategic sectors and go beyond increasing the competitiveness of existing sectors to help move forward with an environmentally sustainable technological paradigm, as well as undertaking to promote policies to invest and expand new productive capacities based on scientific, technological and innovation knowledge.
The declaration was signed at the ministerial meeting Innovation and structural change in Latin America and the Caribbean: strategies for inclusive regional development, which was organized on 17 and 18 June in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation of Argentina, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Brazil, Mexico's National Council of Science and Technology and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
The event was supported by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the Brazilian Center for Strategic Studies and Management in Science, Technology and Innovation (CGEE) and the Brazilian National Bank for the Economic and Social Development (BNDES).
Representatives from 14 countries took part in the meeting -Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela-, as well as from four observer agencies: GIZ, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB).
At the event, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, Alicia Bárcena, emphasized that scientific and technological progress is vital for economic development, but that it also essential for social inclusion - hence the need for social and regional covenants to drive forward such advances.
In Brazil, officials agreed to work on implementing regional cooperation projects in science, technology and innovation, as well as information and communications technologies - specifically in the roll-out of broadband infrastructure and its use in areas such as telemedicine, technological and innovation development focused on the disabled, energy efficiency, electrical and electronic waste and innovation in the production sector.
Meeting participants concluded that science, technology and innovation policies are part of a new phase of industrial policy that is essential for promoting structural change towards knowledge-intensive sectors in Latin America and the Caribbean. This is vital in the light of the turning point reached in the world economy. The region's countries will thus be able to advance towards equality-based economic development.
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E-mail: prensa@cepal.org; Telephone: (56 2) 2210 2040.
