Alem Tedeneke, Media Manager, Tel.: +1 646 204 9191; Email: ated@weforum.org
Medellín, Colombia, 17 June 2016 – Latin America has the potential to offer innovative ideas to the world and take full advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. But to develop the region’s talent base, governments have to invest in education, cooperate with the private sector to develop an entrepreneurial culture, and create political models that better engage its citizens.
“The Fourth Industrial Revolution means that the world is horizontal,” Brian Gallagher, President and Chief Executive Officer, United Way Worldwide, USA, said. Gallagher said that as the head of a charity with global activities, he sees many innovative programmes and ideas outside the developed world, including in Latin America. He cited Colombia’s method of achieving universal pre-K education for every child as a model. But he said Latin America has to invest more in education, since companies, and jobs, follow centres of innovation.
Ilene S. Gordon, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ingredion, USA, agreed both on Latin America’s potential and its need for further progress. “In our company, we’ve exported ideas from Latin America to the US,” she said. “Latin America has a great talent base.” But Gordon said Latin America needed a better culture of smart-risk taking, where entrepreneurs prepare for failure with back-up plans, and learn from their failures when they occur. The good news is that this culture can be taught.
Luis Alberto Moreno, President, InterAmerican Development Bank, Washington DC, emphasized the need for political innovations. “Government needs to build a two-way conversation with society,” he said, adding that new technologies make this dialogue possible. “We need a deeper, richer public-private conversation that moves away from antagonism to partnerships,” he said. He also called for governments to act to improve the region’s innovation ecosystems. Technology will help end the region’s greatest drag on productivity by bringing workers into the formal economy.
But new technologies need help to find practical applications. “It’s not enough to produce more laboratories and biotech units,” Carlos Salazar Lomelin, Chief Executive Officer, FEMSA, Mexico, said. “We have to increase the dialogue between the entrepreneurs and the people who can deliver these wonderful ideas.” Lomelin also noted the attractive size of the region’s market. “We have more than 400 million consumers in Latin America,” he said.
Francesco Starace, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager, Enel, Italy, echoed the call for the region to invest more in education, since trained workers are highly in demand. “There is an incredible fight among companies for talent in Latin America today.” Starace also called attention to how renewable energy is spreading throughout the region. “The green energy revolution is now a fact,” he said. Starace predicted that as green energy spreads further, electricity prices will start to fall all across the region.
Highlights from the meeting:
· President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia said he expects a peace agreement with FARC by the end of the year “for sure”, and possibly in the next few months. He expects the agreement to be approved by 75% to 80% of the population, up from about two-thirds right now.
· Mayor Federico Gutiérrez Zuluaga of Medellín was on the receiving end of many compliments for his city, which international press hailed as a “poster child for urban renewal” and a “model of urban transformation”. At a press conference, he said this was because of the strength and confidence of “paisas”, the people of the city.
· Ministers Maria Claudia Lacouture of Colombia and Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz of Cuba signed a trade agreement between their respective countries, to strengthen their bilateral trade and relations, and bring Colombian and Cuban entrepreneurs closer together.
· President Mauricio Macri of Argentina welcomed foreign investment in Argentina, saying he expected investments in rural areas and small and medium sized enterprises. He also announced that the World Economic Forum on Latin America will take place in Buenos Aires next year.
· Shape Latin America: 160 Global Shapers from 44 cities in 24 countries met in Medellín under the theme “Resilience as an engine of innovation”. The meeting was an opportunity to find out more about Medellín as an innovation hub; they also had the chance to work with local organizations such as Fundación Mi Sangre.
· The Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award: Sergio Andrade, Founder, Agenda Pública, Brazil, was recognized for his work as a social entrepreneur in an award ceremony during the Opening Plenary.
· Meet the Leader Session with President Juan Manuel Santos: Young Global Leaders, Social Entrepreneurs and Global Shapers met President Santos, and learned about his plans for leading Colombia towards peace.
· A New Vision for Agriculture: Four Latin American countries – Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia and Argentina – committed to expanding public-private collaboration to boost sustainable agricultural growth, through the New Vision for Agriculture initiative.
More than 550 participants took part in the 11th World Economic Forum on Latin America in Medellin, Colombia from 16 to 17 June 2016. The theme of the meeting was “Reigniting Latin America’s Inclusive Growth”.
Notes to Editors
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