The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region grew 5.1 percent in 2007, as commodity exporters

benefited from record prices and rapid growth in global demand. The achievement marked the fourth

straight year of growth in excess of 5 percent — its healthiest spurt since the 1970’s. The challenge for

the region today is to sustain growth and continue to reduce poverty and inequality in a much less

favorable global environment. To this end, Innovation and entrepreneurship are critical drivers of social

and economic development. Policymakers increasingly view business incubation as an important tool

to unleash human ingenuity, enable competitive enterprises and create sustainable jobs. Business

incubators can also be instrumental in developing new economic sectors. Nonetheless, business

incubators and small businesses need a business environment that is conducive to private sector

development. According to the World Bank Doing Business Report 2009, which tracks regulatory

reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business by measuring their impact on 10 indicator sets,

a larger share of economies implemented at least one reform compared to previous years. The

Dominican Republic and Colombia are top global and regional reformers with four and five reforms

Business Incubation in Latin America & the Caribbean

“Small and medium size enterprises play an important role in economic growth and social development… This project will grow small dynamic enterprises with high added value that contribute to making productivity dynamic and developing an integral model linked with local private sector”. Mr. Miguel Aldaz, Operations Specialist, Multilateral Investment Fund (IDB)

JOB CREATION & ENTERPRISE

DEVELOPMENT

infoDev’s Business Incubator

Network in the Latin America &

the Caribbean has: • 3,630 currently incubated

client companies

• 16,090 employees in

currently incubated

companies

• 541 companies that

graduated from the

incubator since beginning of

operations

• 5,490 current employees in

graduated companies

To foster networking opportunities among the

lAC network members, infoDev has sponsored

several workshops in the region. These events

have brought together hundreds of

entrepreneurs, incubation practitioners, and

government and academic stakeholders from

across the continent. infoDev’s next Global Forum on Business Incubation will held in Brazil in May 2009, with support from Ministry of

Science and Technology of Brazil (MCT), the

Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support

Service (SEBRAE), and the Brazilian National

Association of Science Parks and Business

infoDev provides financial and technical support to 44 business incubators in 17 countries in the LAC region. Supported by

infoDev and formally launched in 2006, the

network is composed of and managed by five

national entities: ANPROTEC, AIPyPT,

CHILEINCUBA, PERUINCUBA and

URUNOVA. ANPROTEC is a direct recipient

of an infoDev grant to promote the RELAP

network of incubators and technology parks.

2121 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20433 Phone 202 473 9631 Fax 202 522 3186 www.infodev.org

www.idisc.net

NETWORK MEMBERS Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Honduras Jamaica Mexico Panama Paraguay Peru St. Vincent and the Grenadines Uruguay

Examples of the REPLAPI network activities include:

AGROINNOVA supports non traditional rural enterprises with high potential in markets as cosmetic

from honey, building bamboo, exotic fruits, flowers and vegetables, aromatic and medical herbs,

spice plants, edible snail biodiversity and pita fiber networks. Together, they benefit more than 800

farmers and many more farmers indirectly. The objective is to develop the managerial capacity of

innovation enterprises involving Down Scale Rural Producers in the agro-industrial sector of the

Department of Cauca, through the implementation of communication strategies in ICTs and the

articulation of institutional offer to improve the economical, social and environmental conditions of

the region.

PARQUESOFT is a Colombian organization dedicated to the development and promotion of

software and technology. Since 1999, it has supported the creation and sustaining of micro

enterprises with 16 Technology Parks across the country. With US$40 million in accumulated

sales, PARQUESOFT has 655 entrepreneurs, 125 new established enterprises, more than 1,000

jobs and 10 applied research and development laboratories jointly established with universities, all

connected through a wide area network.

OCTANTIS is a Chilean networked acceleration for dynamic enterprises dedicated to the support

and creation of innovative enterprises in technology and business models. Since 2003, it has a

core business in many of its client companies, such as website creation, customer relationship

management modules for the business design stage, and project management software

(dotProject) for portfolio management. So far, the sales of client companies have totaled US$10

million and total investment has exceeded US$1,300,000, including US$1 million contributed by

angel networks.

Relapi is an open network of Business Incubators,

Technology Parks and other institutions promoting innovative

entrepreneurship in the Latin America and Caribbean

regions. The network has identified five priorities areas for its work: Entrepreneurship and

ICTs, Management of the incubation process, External support and networks, and

Evaluation and Public Policies.

www.relapi.org

infoDev Incubation Network in Latin America & the Caribbean, 2008