Industry Agenda Bridging Skills and Innovation Gaps in Latin America

The report outlines the implementation of the Competitiveness Lab in Colombia and Mexico, focusing on creating public-private funding schemes to boost innovation and productivity. In Colombia, the initiative specifically targets energy efficiency in the industrial sector, proposing a financial model involving credit guarantees and subsidized lines through Bancoldex. In Mexico, the Lab identifies a need for R&D investment and suggests reforms to innovation financing, targeting agroindustry, medical devices, and moulds and dies. The document also provides a replicable methodology for other countries to identify competitiveness gaps and establish multistakeholder governance structures.

• The Competitiveness Lab identified that Latin America lags most in three specific factors: skills, technological readiness, and innovation.
• In Colombia, the Competitiveness Lab prioritized the design of new public-private financing schemes for innovation, specifically targeting the energy efficiency subsector to improve industrial productivity.
• Colombia's energy waste is estimated to cost approximately $5.2 billion per year, which represents 1.3% of the country's GDP.
• The proposed funding model for Colombia suggests using Bancoldex as a specialized credit facility to channel funds from the national government and international development banks into subsidized loans for energy efficiency innovation.
• In Mexico, the Lab identified a significant gap in R&D investment, noting that Mexico's investment rate is 0.43% of GDP, which is lower than the Latin American average of 0.84%.
• Mexico's Competitiveness Lab identified three specific sectors as eligible for pilot financing: medical devices, agroindustry, and moulds and dies.
• Mexico's innovation financing recommendations include short-term modifications to incorporate risk sharing, correspondability, and accountability mechanisms, and long-term revisions to governance and transparency.
• The report establishes a replicable six-step methodology for other countries to implement competitiveness recommendations, starting with country selection based on a weighted ranking of data from sources like the Global Innovation Index and the Human Capital Report.
• A key barrier to energy efficiency projects in developing countries is the reluctance of local financial institutions to provide loans due to a lack of understanding and perceived high risk.

APA

World Economic Forum (2016). Industry Agenda Bridging Skills and Innovation Gaps in Latin America. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Bridging_Skills_Innovation_Gaps_Latin_America.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Industry Agenda Bridging Skills and Innovation Gaps in Latin America. 2016. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Bridging_Skills_Innovation_Gaps_Latin_America.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Industry Agenda Bridging Skills and Innovation Gaps in Latin America |date=November 2016 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Bridging_Skills_Innovation_Gaps_Latin_America.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2016industry, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Industry Agenda Bridging Skills and Innovation Gaps in Latin America}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2016}, month = nov, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Bridging_Skills_Innovation_Gaps_Latin_America.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }