Ambassador Baxter and Uruguay delegation have successful meetings in Atlanta
By Leigh Miller
The second annual Americas Competitiveness Forum held August 17-19 in Atlanta, Georgia, was an opportunity for Uruguay to raise its profile as an innovation center in the Americas, according to U.S. Ambassador Frank Baxter.
By Leigh Miller
The second annual Americas Competitiveness Forum held August 17-19 in Atlanta, Georgia, was an opportunity for Uruguay to raise its profile as an innovation center in the Americas, according to U.S. Ambassador Frank Baxter.
Baxter and Uruguay Industry, Energy & Mining Minister Daniel Martinez led a Uruguayan delegation to the event, which brought together public and private sector actors from the Western Hemisphere to discuss strategies for innovation and economic growth. More than 1,000 attendees from business, government, academia and non-governmental organizations in at least 25 countries attended the forum, which was organized by the U.S. State Department.
“This was an opportunity to learn about best practices for competitiveness from peers in other countries,” Baxter said in an interview following the conference. “Sure, there’s competition, but the market is so broad that there is room for learning from each other about how to succeed in the world economy.”
Ambassador Baxter stressed that the development of human capital “should be the No. 1 priority for any country or entity that wants to be competitive,” adding that the Atlanta conference highlighted the importance of educational partnerships between universities and private industry.
He said that developing such academia-industry relationships is one area in which Uruguay has room to grow. One of his meetings in Atlanta, along with Minister Martinez and U.S. Embassy Political Officer Jack Doutrich, involved a discussion with the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Georgia and the Georgia Energy Innovation Center about potential cooperation with Uruguay for renewable energy projects.
Although Atlanta-based Southern Co., the world’s eighth-largest utility company, has divested its international holdings, Ambassador Baxter said his meeting with company representatives proved useful for learning about the potential for Uruguay to further its cellulosic biofuel power generation capabilities.
“There are so many opportunities out there, but you have to look for them. Uruguay has to initiate the conversations,” Baxter said, adding that it was encouraging that such a substantial delegation from Uruguay attended the Atlanta forum.
Several Uruguayan business and government officials spoke on discussion panels at the forum, and met with counterparts from U.S. states and other countries to share best practices on technology transfer, economic development and small business innovation.
Rodolfo Oppenheimer, senior partner of Prosperitas Capital Partners, a financial management company that established the first venture capital fund in Uruguay, participated on a panel about the development of venture capital in Latin America.
Uruguay has begun the process of creating venture capital markets to support Uruguayan entrepreneurs and small businesses, Mr. Oppenheimer said, by following the U.S. model that first develops seed capital, then angel investors, followed by venture capital funds and, finally, mature capital markets. “Now we just need to allow our VC companies to mature,” he said in an interview after the Atlanta conference.
“I think we are headed in the right direction. We need to talk about it day in and day out. The U.S. ambassador [Baxter] is doing a fabulous job of bringing the right individuals from the U.S. to talk to Uruguay about creating capital markets,” Mr. Oppenheimer added.
He said that the Atlanta conference was useful for talking with policy makers from around the hemisphere about strategies that his company can use to develop the right environment for the growth of venture capital in Uruguay. Montevideo-based Prosperitas invests in small- and medium-sized companies with technologies for the information technology, service and agribusiness industries.
Isidoro Hodara, vice president of Zonamerica, a business park in Uruguay, attended the Atlanta forum to learn about developing closer relationships between universities and entrepreneurs. “In addition to networking, the usefulness of this forum lies also in learning what other countries are doing to increase their competitiveness. This gives us a much better position from which to judge what to do in the future,” he said. Dr. Hodara is also an international affairs professor at Universidad ORT Uruguay in Montevideo.
Miguel Brechner, president of the Uruguay Technological Laboratory, a government-funded, privately operated organization, spoke at the forum about the country’s innovation in public-private partnerships. Among other projects, his lab is handling the roll-out of the international “One Laptop Per Child” program, which provides a laptop computer to each public school child in Uruguay.
Santiago Sotuyo, director of Uruguay's National Ports Administration, and Fernando Brun, head of the country’s National Research and Innovation Agency, also attended the forum with Ambassador Baxter and Minister Martinez.
Baxter noted that Uruguay is hoping to host a second annual Americas Innovation Forum in April 2009. The first innovation forum, held in Punta del Este at the end of March, drew attendees from Latin America to discuss strategies for innovation. It was modeled after the inaugural the Americas Competitiveness Forum in Atlanta in 2007.
The third annual Americas Competitiveness Forum is to be held in Chile in 2009.
Visit www.competitivenessforum.org for more information about the event.
“This was an opportunity to learn about best practices for competitiveness from peers in other countries,” Baxter said in an interview following the conference. “Sure, there’s competition, but the market is so broad that there is room for learning from each other about how to succeed in the world economy.”
Ambassador Baxter stressed that the development of human capital “should be the No. 1 priority for any country or entity that wants to be competitive,” adding that the Atlanta conference highlighted the importance of educational partnerships between universities and private industry.
He said that developing such academia-industry relationships is one area in which Uruguay has room to grow. One of his meetings in Atlanta, along with Minister Martinez and U.S. Embassy Political Officer Jack Doutrich, involved a discussion with the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Georgia and the Georgia Energy Innovation Center about potential cooperation with Uruguay for renewable energy projects.
Although Atlanta-based Southern Co., the world’s eighth-largest utility company, has divested its international holdings, Ambassador Baxter said his meeting with company representatives proved useful for learning about the potential for Uruguay to further its cellulosic biofuel power generation capabilities.
“There are so many opportunities out there, but you have to look for them. Uruguay has to initiate the conversations,” Baxter said, adding that it was encouraging that such a substantial delegation from Uruguay attended the Atlanta forum.
Several Uruguayan business and government officials spoke on discussion panels at the forum, and met with counterparts from U.S. states and other countries to share best practices on technology transfer, economic development and small business innovation.
Rodolfo Oppenheimer, senior partner of Prosperitas Capital Partners, a financial management company that established the first venture capital fund in Uruguay, participated on a panel about the development of venture capital in Latin America.
Uruguay has begun the process of creating venture capital markets to support Uruguayan entrepreneurs and small businesses, Mr. Oppenheimer said, by following the U.S. model that first develops seed capital, then angel investors, followed by venture capital funds and, finally, mature capital markets. “Now we just need to allow our VC companies to mature,” he said in an interview after the Atlanta conference.
“I think we are headed in the right direction. We need to talk about it day in and day out. The U.S. ambassador [Baxter] is doing a fabulous job of bringing the right individuals from the U.S. to talk to Uruguay about creating capital markets,” Mr. Oppenheimer added.
He said that the Atlanta conference was useful for talking with policy makers from around the hemisphere about strategies that his company can use to develop the right environment for the growth of venture capital in Uruguay. Montevideo-based Prosperitas invests in small- and medium-sized companies with technologies for the information technology, service and agribusiness industries.
Isidoro Hodara, vice president of Zonamerica, a business park in Uruguay, attended the Atlanta forum to learn about developing closer relationships between universities and entrepreneurs. “In addition to networking, the usefulness of this forum lies also in learning what other countries are doing to increase their competitiveness. This gives us a much better position from which to judge what to do in the future,” he said. Dr. Hodara is also an international affairs professor at Universidad ORT Uruguay in Montevideo.
Miguel Brechner, president of the Uruguay Technological Laboratory, a government-funded, privately operated organization, spoke at the forum about the country’s innovation in public-private partnerships. Among other projects, his lab is handling the roll-out of the international “One Laptop Per Child” program, which provides a laptop computer to each public school child in Uruguay.
Santiago Sotuyo, director of Uruguay's National Ports Administration, and Fernando Brun, head of the country’s National Research and Innovation Agency, also attended the forum with Ambassador Baxter and Minister Martinez.
Baxter noted that Uruguay is hoping to host a second annual Americas Innovation Forum in April 2009. The first innovation forum, held in Punta del Este at the end of March, drew attendees from Latin America to discuss strategies for innovation. It was modeled after the inaugural the Americas Competitiveness Forum in Atlanta in 2007.
The third annual Americas Competitiveness Forum is to be held in Chile in 2009.
Visit www.competitivenessforum.org for more information about the event.
1 comment:
Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?
Help, please. All recommend this program to effectively advertise on the Internet, this is the best program!
Post a Comment