There are still several challenges to solve in the country

According to the Technological Development and Innovation survey (EDIT) of the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), only 0.1% of industrial companies in Colombia have been classified as innovative during the 2013-2014 period, while over 76% of companies were classified as not-innovative.

Colombian results are not an isolated phenomenon in Latin America. World Bank figures show that companies in the region have -20% less chances of introducing a new product than developed regions.

The state of things is rather alarming in a context in which innovation is one of the keys to competitiveness and one of the most important variables for sustained economic growth for a country.

Innovation enables the discovery of current and future opportunities. Therefore, it is very important for a country to constantly promote and analyse business’ innovative activity to ensure economic growth.

According to DANE, during the periods 2011-2012 and 2013-2014, the number of innovative companies went down -55.6% (from 18 to 8 companies). Among companies that innovate in the national market, the drop was of -15.9% and among potentially innovative companies there was a -6.7% reduction. Meanwhile non-innovative companies grew 5.6%, which stands for 335 companies during the two periods.

The number of innovative products or new goods introduced by industrial companies has also been reduced -54.4% and the amount of improved products was reduced 43.9%. Finally, the number of innovations in new products for the international market was the one that experienced that largest decrease with -66.7%.

Jorge Bris, Engineering Research Director at Uninorte, states that the main reason for this phenomenon is that Colombia does not participate in highly competitive markets such as electronics or medical devices. These markets constantly demand innovation to avoid losing competiveness.

Among the main obstacles analysed by DANE for companies’ innovation, the scarcity of resources has been scored with high relevance by 26% of innovative companies and by 43.3% of companies that made no innovations. Around 20.5% considers the uncertainty towards the demand of innovative goods and services as a very important fact, as well as the uncertainty towards the technical execution of the project (15.2%).

 According to Camilo Mejía, professor at Uninorte Business School, the main barrier to innovation relies in the business mentality: keep on working under the same paradigm even though it may not generate options that lead to better results.

María José Vengoechea, director of the Chamber of Trade of Barranquilla, considers that companies do not exactly mistrust cooperation projects for innovation development, but they do not actually know about them.

“When businessmen start and develop projects together with universities, business partners, allies, etc., and experience these processes, they realize that it is an excellent option to generate innovation”, she says.

The main challenges for national policy to enhance innovation seem to be related to characteristics such as information, self-confidence and the creation of a favourable environment for innovative business initiatives.

Colombia must keep on generating financing mechanisms that favour high-risk projects, as well as developing tax incentives to attract anchor high technology companies, defining development strategies in the regions that lead to business alliances and structure innovative ecosystems around these anchor companies. The key is building effective links that contribute to building trust and lasting relationships among the players involved.

Initiatives such as the OTRIs are being developed, promoted by Colciencias. From this project Cien Tech was born, an initiative that aims to create value through the creation of these types of links, focused on the needs of the business sector as well as on strengthening the academy’s capacities. The development of joint projects generates economic value and has an impact on society.