Follow-up on Competitiveness Agendas
The emphasis INCAE and other regional and national entities have places on the importance of business climates and the strengthening of clusters, has resulted in the institutionalization of national competitiveness programs in the countries served, as well as various regional initiatives. The importance of these programs requires the dedication of technical resources of support for governments, civil society and the region's private sector associations, for the implementation of specific projects which contribute to increasing the competitiveness of their economies, especially in the key industries and/or regions.
An example of CLACDS work in this area is the conceptual and facilitative support for processes occurring in Honduras through the Foundation for Investment and Development of Exports (FIDE), the recently created Honduras National Competitiveness Program for the development of the National Dialogue about Competitiveness and the organization of working groups on subjects of business climates, as well as specific clusters, including the maquila industry, agro-industry and tourism, among others.
In a similar manner, support is programmed for the implementation of the National Competitiveness Agenda, recently announced by the President of Costa Rica, and is supporting Nicaragua's government and private sector to bolster the work of the National Competitiveness Program, facilitating the organization of the different institutions involved in the area, and follow-up of working groups. In Panama, it has developed research with the objective of presenting the diagnostic of competitiveness of the Panamanian economy before a private sector forum, as part of the support for competitiveness projects that this county is defining.
At the regional level, INCAE forms part of the Technical Group of support for the Puebla Panama Plan, an initiative which includes Mexico, Central America and Panama, and attempts to improve development conditions of the countries involved through the implementation of diverse regional products. Some of these projects are derived from the agenda the region presented to international donors in Madrid in 2001, which borrows from the content of the Central American Agenda for the 21st Century, developed my CLACDS and presented in 1999.
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