(17 April 2013) On Tuesday 16 April, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, met with the President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, as part of her tour of the Central American country.
The most senior official of this United Nations regional commission was accompanied by Hugo Beteta, Director of the ECLAC Subregional headquarters in Mexico, Osvaldo Rosales, Director of the Division of International Trade and Integration and Luis F. Yañez, Officer in Charge of the Secretariat of the Commission.
The delegation held meetings with senior Costa Rican government authorities, including the Minister of Science, Technology and Telecommunications, Alejandro Cruz, as well as the Technical Secretary of the Presidential Council for Competitiveness and Innovation, Ricardo Monge, and the Director of Investment of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Irene Arguedas.
At her meeting with President Chinchilla, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC reiterated the Commission's commitment to Costa Rica and emphasized that the country has made irrevocable steps towards structural change for equality. She said "the economy has paved the way for incorporating small and medium-sized enterprises into global value chains".
According to Alicia Bárcena "Costa Rica has gradually and firmly transformed its production structure by replacing low-technology industries with manufacturing that incorporates knowledge and advanced technology in strategic sectors such as biomedicine and the film industry".
During its tour of Costa Rica, the ECLAC delegation visited the country's main industrial parks in the areas of Cartago and Coyol, following an invitation from the Ministry of Foreign Trade headed by Minister Anabel González.
The aim of the visit was to discover success stories of attracting high-technology foreign direct investment that is facilitating the diversification of Costa Rican exports and participation in global value chains (through the involvement of small and medium-sized enterprises providing inputs and services to global companies).
In her tour of the country, the ECLAC Executive Secretary also took part in the international seminar on Information and communications technologies for competitiveness, social inclusion and sustainable development in Costa Rican agriculture, which was organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), the Costa Rican Chamber of Information and Communications Technologies (CAMTIC), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) - through the @LIS2 projects financed by the European Union - and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
Talking at the event, Ms. Bárcena stated that it was essential and urgent to implement digital technology in agriculture as it was the most backward sector in the region, and that regional experience showed that increasing the use of such technology in agriculture (particularly among small-scale producers) may also increase the profitability of farming by reducing transformation processes throughout the production chain.
She declared that this required appropriate public policies that address the supply gaps (affordable broadband and relevant content for rural areas) and demand deficits (education and capacity building among users), particularly policies that promote structural change with social equality by incorporating more knowledge and innovation into production activities.
In the context of the seminar, Alicia Bárcena and the Director-General of IICA, Víctor Villalobos, signed a cooperation agreement in which the two institutions undertook to contribute as effectively as possible to working with their Member States to speed up competitive, sustainable and inclusive development of agriculture and rural territories.
The agreement will boost joint endeavours as it covers all technical spheres of both agencies, as well as their national and regional offices and associated or subsidiary bodies. In order to achieve this, studies, direct assistance, technical cooperation and training activities will be carried out.
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E-mail: prensa@cepal.org; Telephone: (56 2) 2210 2040.
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