The need for an eco-system to support innovation is even more pressing in a global context of rapid technological change. For the Caribbean, new technology is an opportunity to use the region's recognized creativity to transcend the logistics hurdles that have traditionally affected its goods and services' exports.
The Caribbean
is in a good position to take advantage of the ongoing 4th industrial revolution. It boasts universities generating local talent in business and in tech, a relatively well-developed financial sector. Missing in the region, however, are key policies and instruments to support innovative businesses at all stages, particularly in the early stages, and especially in the high-tech sector.
To address such gaps developed countries, and to a lesser extent, developing countries, have put in place institutions that offer support for innovation.
Compete Caribbean invited Ruta N representatives to engage stakeholders in Jamaica and Barbados and delve into the different kinds of support that an eco-system would need to provide to promote and foster innovation.
Ruta N is the innovation agency of Medellín, a city of 3.6 million people in Colombia which was once known as the global capital of narco-trafficking. Medellín has transformed itself from one of the most dangerous cities in the world during the 1990s, to being recognized in 2013 as the world's most socially innovative city.
The example of the city of Medellín, Colombia, located in a small and similarly isolated geographical setting as most countries in the Caribbean, will illustrate what a dynamic innovation agency can do for economic growth.