Globally Renowned Authorities and Experts Analyze the New Vision for Productive Development Policies Presented by ECLAC

At a high-level seminar, specialists and academics from numerous countries debated about the first edition of the organization's flagship publication "Panorama of Productive Development Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean 2024."

flagship_pdp-3.jpg

Authorities, experts and academics from some of the world's most distinguished research centers participated in a high-level online seminar at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) to discuss the new vision for productive development policies (PDPs) presented today by the United Nations regional organization at the launch of the first edition of its flagship publication Panorama of Productive Development Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean 2024: How can the region advance the great productive transformation it needs?.

On three distinct panels, these specialists addressed the challenges, governance and institutions, and subnational efforts involved in implementing productive development policies in Latin America and the Caribbean, along with the need to scale them up and improve them in order to foster a productive transformation and growth in the productivity of the region's economies.

The seminar was led by ECLAC's Executive Secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, and Marco Llinás, the Director of the United Nations regional organization's Production, Productivity and Management Division, which is in charge of preparing the report.

On the first panel entitled "Challenges of current productive development policies in the region," Annalisa Primi, Head of the Development and Economic Transformation Division at the OECD Development Centre; Fuad Hasanov, Senior Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF); Nathan Lane, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford; José Antonio Ocampo, former Minister of Finance and Public Credit of Colombia and former Executive Secretary of ECLAC; and Uallace Moreira, Secretary of Industry at the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services of Brazil, addressed the assessment that ECLAC presented in its document regarding current PDP efforts, which are characterized as being: (i) marginal, given the productivity challenge the region faces and compared with what other countries are doing in this area; (ii) disjointed, with great opportunities to improve the coordination of the efforts being made by different ministries, agencies, stakeholders and levels; (iii) discontinuous, changing abruptly when there are changes of government, even though these should be medium- and long-term agendas; (iv) managed primarily in a centralist, top-down way from capital cities, without any major role for local territories and actors; (v) insufficiently evaluated; (vi) not necessarily aligned with the new vision for productive development policies that ECLAC has been proposing; and (vii) low-impact, when considered in the light of the region's poor productivity and growth performance.

The speakers stressed the importance of making specific sectoral policies; the differences that exist between countries in Latin America and companies - which means that one particular policy will not fit all; regional integration on production matters and the need to put productive development policies at the center, integrating all the economies' actors; and how to scale up these policies and survive government cycles so they can become long-term. They also addressed other issues that could be analyzed more deeply, such as new lines of thinking on science, technology and innovation policies and the role of development banks in these processes.

Participating on the second panel, entitled "Governance and institutions for productive development policies in the region," were Gonzalo Rivas, Head of the Competitiveness, Technology, and Innovation Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); Piero Ghezzi, former Minister of Production of Peru; Charles Sabel, Professor of Law and Social Sciences at Columbia University Law School (United States); Amir Lebdioui, Associate Professor of the Political Economy of Development and Director of the Technology and Management Centre for Development at the University of Oxford; and Camilo Rivera, Deputy Minister of Business Development at the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of Colombia. They addressed both regional and international experiences regarding institutional capacities and governance mechanisms (coordination bodies, routines, incentives, or others) that support implementation of productive development policies.

These panelists argued that there is an atomization and fragmentation problem, which mirrors the assessment made by ECLAC regarding the state of PDPs in the region. They indicated that the issues of governance and of creating or strengthening institutional capacities must go hand in hand. In addition, they insisted that the management capacity for implementing these policies must be built in practice, with experimentalist governance, and noted that each country must find its own way forward since there are no standard models. They concluded that development must originate at the local level, and local matters must be able to dialogue with national matters, and vice versa.

Finally, the participants on the third panel entitled "Subnational efforts in productive development policies in the region" - Paola Pabón, Prefect of the Province of Pichincha, Ecuador; Christian Ketels, Principal Associate at the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School, Harvard University (United States); Nicolás Grau, Minister of Economy, Development and Tourism of Chile; Rebeca Vidal, Private Sector Evaluation Executive at the CAF-Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean; and Vidal Llerenas, an expert in productive policy from Mexico - discussed the technical and also political reasons cited in ECLAC's report for giving a territorial focus to PDP efforts. Under this approach, subnational governments have a key role to play in PDPs within their respective territories.

The speakers emphasized the importance of defining and distributing roles between national and subnational governments, and ensuring that the transfer of decision-making power from national governments to subnational ones involves not only responsibilities, but capacities and resources as well. They also underlined the relevance of the region's countries exchanging experiences and of articulation between governments, as well as with international organizations and development banks, for strengthening the institutional capacities of territories.

In his closing remarks at the seminar, ECLAC's Executive Secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, expressed gratitude for the positive reception of the organization's report on productive development policies in Latin America and the Caribbean. "By doing an annual report on these issues, our goal is to better establish this conversation in each country and at a regional level, with a view to scaling up and strengthening these policies. There is no other way to get out of the trap of low capacity for growth in which the region is mired," he stated.

"This is not just about growing, it's about fostering greater social inclusion, reducing inequality and promoting environmental sustainability. Productive development policies contribute to all of this," the senior United Nations official concluded.