Cuba accesses potential to improve its position in the Global Innovation Index

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 17 (ACN) Specialists from research centers, entities and national organizations debated on Thursday in Havana how much can be done to place Cuba in better positions worldwide in the Global Innovation Index (GII), despite the impact of the U.S. blockade and the fact that some indicators are typical of developed nations.

Under these conditions, its study and the analysis of the information in Cuba is very useful as a reference for decision making and the construction of alternative metrics at national, provincial and municipal levels, as has happened with the Human Development Index, and in this sense a workshop was held on the alternative calculation of the IGI.

The preliminary results of a research in 2021, which gathers the advances, mistakes and potentialities of the country in the pillars of Institutions, Human Capital and Research, Infrastructure, Market and Business Sophistication, Production of Technology and Knowledge, and Creative Productions, were enriched with the evaluations and proposals of the participants in the event.

In the presence of Armando Rodríguez Batista, Vice Minister of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA), the agency in charge of this task, Doctor of Science Ramón Pichs, director of the World Economy Research Center (CIEM), coordinator of the Technical Group created to follow up on the Global Innovation Index, highlighted the contribution of various entities.

In addition to CIEM, from which several of its specialists presented the global vision of Cuba in each of the established pillars, experts from CITMA's Directorate of Scientific and Technological Potential, the National Statistics and Information Office (ONEI), the Cuban Intellectual Property Office and other agencies also contributed ideas and recommendations.

It was learned that in terms of innovation capacity (especially in what is related to human potential and research) Cuba has a better position worldwide than in innovation results.

There was consensus on the urgency of providing more visibility and updated information on the progress made in many of the indicators measured by the IGI, in addition to the fact that for reasons of national security there will be restricted data.

We have an economic blockade and many financial restrictions, but we have been able to have a science, technology and innovation system that is being consolidated, and it is also necessary to have it in the field of information and communication, said Dr. Gladys Hernandez, researcher at CIEM, shortly after presenting a project in this field.

At the workshop, the director of that center explained that the IGI 2020 calculations, taken as a starting point for Cuba's research, included 131 countries, representing 93.5% of the planet's population and 97.4% of the global Gross Domestic Product.

We are facing a challenging topic, which sets paradigms because it breaks barriers in the ways of thinking and doing in the midst of diverse limitations, for which reason it will be necessary to enamor those institutions that should also join in this task, said Vice Minister Rodríguez Batista in his conclusions.

He recalled that President Miguel Díaz-Canel directed to undertake it immediately, to begin to compare ourselves with the rest of the world in the aspiration to be a prosperous and sustainable society; hence we will have to analyze with the agencies that have policies linked to IGI indicators how to feedback, he said.

I see these results with a sense of optimism, he said after the speakers' presentation, to clarify that the way we work or see certain public policies is a function of putting the country in a better international position.

Regarding the IV National Innovation Survey, which will be after 2022, the vice minister of CITMA pointed out that it can help to measure the IGI, as we will have to design a system aimed at also the level of management of local governments, he said.

He said that in 2022, before the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers, they will report the results of the progress in this task, in which social communication is important, insisted Rodríguez Batista.

He said that when the ideas for the study and follow-up of Cuba's presence in the Global Innovation Index were presented to the Cuban President, when he asked where the technical team would be, he was told that it would be at the CIEM, an institution of great experience, prestige and renowned specialists.

Precisely one of them, PhD in Economic Sciences José Luis Rodríguez, one of the speakers on the panel, received special recognition for 55 years of teaching and research, in addition to having held important responsibilities, such as Minister of Finance and Prices and later Minister of Economy.