The Korea Development Institute (KDI) and the United Nations regional commission held a seminar on digital innovation and sustainable growth in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in conjunction with the Korea Development Institute (KDI) and the Ministry of Economy and Finance of that country, held a seminar today entitled “Digital Innovation and Sustainable Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean” at the United Nations regional organization’s headquarters in Santiago.

This event sought to explore strategies for fostering innovation and supporting inclusive, long-term economic development in the region. The participants included government authorities, members of the diplomatic corps, and prominent specialists from Korea and several Latin American countries.

The seminar was inaugurated by Javier Medina Vásquez, acting Deputy Executive Secretary of ECLAC; Byungseok Choi, Director of the Economic Cooperation Strategy Division of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Korea; and Hakjae Kim, Korea’s Ambassador to Chile.

In his welcome remarks, ECLAC’s acting Deputy Executive Secretary noted that the seminar is focused on exploring strategies for digital innovation and the new drivers of productive growth in light of our region’s productivity challenges and structural gaps, as well as opportunities for cooperation with Korea to address these challenges. He added that this event is part of a series of seminars that the Korea Development Institute organizes each year in distinct regions of the world. “On this occasion, the Institute took the initiative to invite ECLAC to be a co-organizer, which we welcomed with great enthusiasm,” he said.

“All the experiences from different countries that we will learn about today show not only the potential of digital innovation for increasing productivity and thereby resuming the path of sustainable growth, but also the potential of international cooperation – an area in which the Republic of Korea stands out on a global level, being a vital partner for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean,” Javier Medina Vásquez emphasized.

Meanwhile, the Director of the Economic Cooperation Strategy Division of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Korea, Byungseok Choi, indicated that since its launch in 2004, the Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP) has served as a platform for countries to learn from each other’s experience and to chart new paths for growth. “In Latin America and the Caribbean, Korea has carried out more than 160 policy consultation projects with 22 countries, nearly two-thirds of the region, covering a great range of economic and social areas. These collaborations have demonstrated how knowledge exchange can spark new ideas and strengthen partnerships for sustainable development,” he stated.

The Ambassador of the Republic of Korea in Chile, meanwhile, noted that through the KSP program, Korea provides customized assistance to define the policies to be implemented, according to each country’s needs. “The KSP is not limited to knowledge transfer, but instead analyzes the problems of each case so that the program’s recipient countries do not repeat the same errors committed in the original phase of development of these policies in Korea. I hope that this seminar, which has digital innovation and sustainable growth as its theme, can serve to offer possible solutions to the structural problems that Latin American and Caribbean countries endure,” Hakjae Kim indicated.

The seminar is part of the cooperation activities between ECLAC and the Republic of Korea and is focused on disseminating the results of the KSP program, created by the KDI, which seeks to promote the sustainable socioeconomic development of partner countries, integrating Korea’s development experiences on the basis of co-propriety and shared responsibility. Instead of following a general theoretical approach to development, the KSP differs by analyzing countries’ challenges and obstacles from a demand-driven perspective, and by offering recommendations and practical policy alternatives based on similar cases and experiences from Korea, integrating policy research, technical assistance on development, and human and institutional capacity-building.