With the financial support of:

Introduction• The Workshop “Innovation and Information and Communication Technologies

(ICTs) for the Productivity of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)” was organized by the OAS Department of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism, in coordination with the Center for the Promotion of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Central America (CENPROMYPE) and the Association of Small Business Development Centers (ASBDC).

• The workshop, financed by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), was held in San Antonio, Texas, in the context of the ASBDCs Annual Conference, which gathers about 1,000 representatives of the Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) Network in the United States.

• The event promoted the exchange of experiences and best practices on SMEs’ competitiveness and included the participation of experts from Israel, Singapore, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and USA, among other countries.

• Participants: Ministers and vice-ministers responsible for the SMEs portfolio in Central America, Dominican Republic and Panama, directors of SME support agencies, authorities responsible for innovation, representatives of academia and the private sector and international organizations. Representatives of the CARICOM Secretariat, Caribbean Export, University of West Indies, Belize and Haiti also took part in the workshop.

• Authorities discussed the importance of collaboration to replicate successful experiences such as those of the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (SEBRAE); the Small Business Development Centers (SBDC); SERCOTEC from Chile; and ProSoft program from Jalisco, Mexico, which have already resulted in excellent outcomes for their SMEs. Taking into consideration the successful experiences of these countries, the OAS will support the promotion of innovation and ICTs with a strong focus on government-business-academia partnerships.

• The conclusions of the workshop will be communicated during the Dialogue on “Public Policies to Enhance the Competitiveness of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises”, which is being organized by the Department of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism within the framework of Mexico’s National SME Week, on November 1-3, 2010.

Introduction

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• We require the promotion of public policies with incentives for innovation of SMEs

• The commitment to innovation should be reflected in public budgets. However, resources are not enough if there is no long-term vision

• The actions undertaken by the institutions supporting innovation require commitment and perseverance from their leaders

• Innovation is not generated by decree; it relies on a collaborative, gradual and continuous learning process

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• It is necessary to prioritize efforts directed to training qualified human resources

• State policies for the promotion of innovation should rely on youth

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Promote the modification of the traditional education models in order to build a culture of creativity and innovation

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• The innovation process promoted by supporting institutions should be focused on implementation rather than on conceptualization only

• Transfer, adaptation and adoption of good practices to strengthen institutions that promote SME innovation should be promoted

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Institutions should offer differentiated/specialized services depending on the type of business, focusing on the SMEs with high impact and competitive potential, without neglecting the rest of the SMEs, including subsistence companies

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• A culture of innovation should be promoted within the institutions that support SMEs (public and private sectors and academy)

• Institutions should maintain an information infrastructure that facilitates access to knowledge. That is a necessary but not sufficient condition for innovation

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• It is necessary to strengthen the university-business-government relations. The NGOs should also be incorporated in the process. Innovation also requires strong business-business relations

• Generate multidisciplinary collaboration, regionally and internationally, taking advantage of the diversity and creativity of the countries in the Americas

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Establish effective communication mechanisms which can allow institutions to share information and collaborate

• Coordination and collaboration shall be promoted at the regional and international levels.

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Access to credit is the main obstacle for the development of the SMEs

• Governments should invest more in supporting the innovation generated by SMEs taking into account the absence of venture capital. Other options to subsidize the risk of the financial agent and not directly to the company could be considered

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Innovation must result in new products, services, and processes that generate tangible economic benefits

• Innovation processes must consist of profitable investments that support development and allow for an improvement of income distribution

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• It is necessary to assign financial resources to disseminate successful experiences in order to break paradigms and to elevate the expectations to benefit from innovation

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Support the development of innovation by means of clusters or specialized niches that contribute to regional development, including sectors such as creative industries

• Promote innovation based on the use of natural resources in a sustainable and socially responsible way

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Take advantage of “smart” locations or regions with high creative energy, including developing a mapping of places with creative industries, products, cultural, and gastronomic traditions to promote economic development based on innovation and tourism

• Create awareness and promote the use of intellectual property tools by SMEs as part of their business models

• Support high impact SMEs in order to develop their capacity to protect, manage and license technologies which can generate economic impact in their countries

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Include training on intellectual property at all education levels, including patent searches in all science projects

• Develop capacity to manage knowledge, research and development, and intellectual property in public and private institutions of innovation systems

• Promote invention camps where INVENTORS WITH PATENTS work as mentors and interact with young people to conceptualize and to develop inventions of global impact, using biochemistry, synthetic biology, and computer modeling, among others state-of-the-art technologies

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Access to an effective and up-to-date infrastructure of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is a relevant element to create an ecosystem that allows the improvement of productivity and innovation for the people in the Americas

• Investment and consistency of long-term policies are key factors for the development of ICTs

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Successful cases demonstrating the development of ICTs industries in the countries of the Americas that have resulted in the creation of quality job, new products with high-added-value, and exports should be replicated

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Government procurement offers opportunities to develop sale and distribution channels for SMEs as direct suppliers or in association with other companies