Digital Public Goods: Driving the Development of Digital Public Infrastructure in the Caribbean

Latin American Economic Outlook 2021: Working together for a better recovery

The Latin American Economic Outlook 2021: Working Together for a Better Recovery aims to analyse and provide policy recommendations for a strong, inclusive and environmentally sustainable recovery in the region. The report explores policy actions to improve social protection mechanisms and increase social inclusion, foster regional integration and strengthen industrial strategies, and rethink the social contract to restore trust and empower citizens at all stages of the policy‑making process. Moreover, it stresses the need to promote sustainable and adapted macro‑economic frameworks to finance…

CEPAL Review no. 135

Made in Latam: How smart manufacturing can give Latin America new hope for industrialization

Innovation, automatization, and digitalization of production processes entail many positive externalities for companies. These include higher levels of competitiveness and productivity brought about by improving operational processes, facilitating access to new markets, easing product differentiation and optimizing the entire value chain. Smart manufacturing trends capture these changes, highlighting opportunities and challenges for companies. Various factors condition the adoption of new technologies in companies in Latin America and the Caribbean, thus hampering innovation and technological …

Provisional agenda. Third meeting of the Conference on Science, Innovation and Information and Communications Technologies of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

Draft programme of work of the ECLAC system, 2023

The draft programme of work of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) for 2023 is hereby submitted to the member States of the Commission for their consideration. It highlights the priorities for 2023 that will be considered by the Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC) and the United Nations General Assembly as part of the intergovernmental reviewing exercise. The overall purpose of the programme is to promote the economic, social and environmentally sustainable development of Latin America and the Caribbean through international cooperation, by undertakin…

Final assessment report. Assessment of development account project 16/17Y: Big data for measuring and fostering the digital economy in Latin America and the Caribbean

Report on the activities of the Commission 2020

For more than 73 years, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has been fully committed to the sustainable development of the countries of the region. This report on the activities of the Commission highlights its key achievements and contributions in 2020 and is hereby submitted for the consideration of member States in light of the accountability and transparency framework promoted by the United Nations.…

The Hummingbird Vol. 8 No. 9

Strategies for Post COVID-19 Recovery in the Caribbean

CEPAL Review no. 134

Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2021

This document examines the global and regional evolution of FDI and offers recommendations so these flows can contribute to the region’s productive development processes. The first chapter of the publication analyzes, among other things, the trends observed in the context of the international crisis prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, detailing the amount of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) received by each country in 2020 and providing a regional projection for 2021. The second chapter offers a historic and current overview of China’s investments in Latin America and the Caribbean, placing thes…

Analysis of policies to support SMEs in confronting the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America

The institutions that support micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Latin America have demonstrated their capacity to react to the challenges posed by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, making unprecedented efforts to adapt support instruments and adjust their management modalities to new needs. This document summarizes the experiences of nine countries in the region (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and Uruguay), highlighting good practices and methodological lessons learned that can be leveraged to improve the performance of t…

Tourism in Central America and the Dominican Republic in the face of digital technologies: Challenges and opportunities for MSMEs

Tourism micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) recognize the importance of digital tools to attract tourists, showcase the company and sell products and services. However, they make basic use of these tools to communicate and promote the company, missing opportunities to improve their competitiveness, productivity and sustainability. This study analyses the state of the digital transformation of tourism MSMEs in the member States of the Central American Integration System (SICA), both their internal capacities and external conditions that affect their ability to innovate. The study …

The Hummingbird Vol. 8 No. 5

CEPAL Review no. 133

Digital technologies for a new future

Fifteen years after the adoption of the first Digital Agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean, the region is facing a new world. Some of the expectations of that time have been fulfilled, but others have not. Growth in digital technologies has been exponential and they are now used worldwide, but this has been accompanied by negative social repercussions. The region has yet to strike the right balance between the benefits and costs of digitization in a more adverse global situation, exacerbated by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This document contributes to discussion o…

Report of the Seventh Ministerial Conference on the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean

Analysis of competition policies in five countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and the post-pandemic recovery period

The intensive use of platforms —and the multi-sided nature thereof— in the wake of the lockdown forced by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has widespread repercussions for national policies on privacy, cybersecurity and competition the world over. The pandemic has highlighted the shortcomings in regulatory frameworks governing data protection, cybersecurity and competition policy, as well as the need to face the new challenges posed by the increased digitization of economies. The aim of this document is to analyse the measures taken by competition authorities in Latin America and th…

Elements for innovation in MSME and antitrust policies considering the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recovery

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has hit micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) particularly hard. In this context, polices designed to stimulate their growth and to defend competition now play a key role in tackling the effects of the crisis and in the path to recovery. To respond to the new demands and needs resulting from this crisis, the institutions responsible for the design and implementation of these policies have had to face new challenges, rethink their approaches and quickly devise creative new methods of operation. This document summarizes the research conduc…