1 December 2016
Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness this week welcomes a group of key players in the territorial development of Bogotá and Medellin (Colombia). This is a fact-finding mission coordinated by Orkestra in collaboration with the Xaverian Centre for Business Competitiveness of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (CJC-PUJB), the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá (CCB) and Connect Bogotá Region (CBR).
The aim of the visit is to explain the development of the process of design and implementation of smart specialisation strategies (RIS3) in the Basque Country, and use the Basque experience as inspiration to reflect upon the potential challenges and projects that need to be addressed in order to implement these kinds of strategies in the respective regions whose representatives visit us.
Bogotá city-region has already developed a RIS3 strategy thanks to the initiative of CCB and CBR and the support of the Basque consultancy firm IDOM. However, now it must address the challenge of executing this strategy and to do so wishes to take as a reference other settings in which public-private participation has been crucial for the implementation of territorial strategies: this is the case in the Basque Country, where the regional competitiveness strategies employed in recent decades have been developed by means of constant transformation capable of combining economic growth and social inclusion with public-private participation. Medellin meanwhile, although it does not yet have a RIS3 strategy, is immersed in a participatory process of design of the latter
Orkestra is part of the network of agents supporting innovation and competitiveness in the Basque Country, and as research institute is open to sharing with institutions from other regions its interest in territorial competitiveness, and to learning together.
Therefore, the objective of this fact-finding mission is an exchange of experiences between the participants from both territories: on the one hand, explaining the methodology that Orkestra has developed as a research centre that interacts with key players in the territorial competitiveness of the Basque Country, informing of the different organisations, institutions and initiatives existing to assist in the economic and social development of the Basque Country. On the other hand, Orkestra as host organisation has the opportunity to listen to the visitors’ experiences and challenges, thus enriching its ways of seeing, analysing and facilitating territorial competitiveness.
The design of the weekly schedule alternates various sessions with professionals from Orkestra during which there has been analysis of themes such as the birth and the evolution of the institute, RIS3 strategy in the Basque Country or cluster policy in the Basque Country, as well as specific visits to Innobasque, where RIS3 implementation in the Basque Country was addressed or the visit to Ikusi to see the facilities and learn about mobility and logistics cluster work and the role of cluster policy in the Basque Country and its integration with RIS3.
This visit serves to promote the collaboration process between the Basque Country, Bogotá and Medellin, thanks to the reflections worked upon during the visits and the joint meetings. It has also strengthened the ties between Orkestra and the Javeriano Centre of Competitiveness, both of which intend to continue working together.
