IDB Hosts Innovation Workshop to Spur Economic Growth

The Economic Development Council, Compete Caribbean and the Inter-American Development Bank hosted a one-day workshop to discuss using innovation within the private sector to achieve exponential growth in Belize. At today’s event, a partner from Innovation Agency in Medellin, Colombia shared how technology and knowledge were used to transform Medellin. The city was considered dangerous, but has grown significantly over a few years through the use of innovation to attract foreign investment and create employment. Sylvia Dohnert, the Executive Director of Compete Caribbean, tells us how Belize can produce more goods and services through competitiveness, technology and innovation.

Sylvia Dohnert

Sylvia Dohnert, Executive Director, Compete Caribbean

“Certainly a lot of the mechanisms that RUTA N in Medellin used to develop that area can be put in place here. So, for example, Belize as of next week will have eighty percent of households covered with eighty-percent fiber optic network that is very fast speed and that provides a highway of connectivity upon which many social services can be delivered and businesses can take to develop products that function over this highway. Belize has the Economic Development Council which is a council that is government but has private sector sitting on its board that coordinates public policy for private sector development. I think there is a clear understanding of the need for alignment of building a road map for   innovation and some of the short term actions were indentified here. We see Belizeans as a very dynamic people. Our program has projects in thirteen Caribbean countries and Belize is one of our favorite countries because our projects here, both with the private and public sectors tend to do very well and that is because of the dynamism of Belize’s people.”