Harnessing regional integration and industrial policy to build the economies of the future

The economic future of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is intrinsically linked to advancing its industrial capacity in a climate constrained world. Doing so poses the profound policy challenge of how to restructure production and trade dynamics consistently with global decarbonization.

National governments will have an important role in creating competitive, inclusive, and sustainable economies. They will need to implement a wide range of green industrial policies including research and development support, skills development programs and promotion of low-carbon industrial clusters. But there’s a limit to how much can be achieved without regional cooperation. Each Latin American country has different strengths, from mineral wealth, to manufacturing expertise, to proximity to important trade routes. All these assets can be part of a carefully designed plan to develop an efficient regional industrial ecosystem around low carbon technologies.

Objective

UNCTAD and the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) aim to work together to help countries in the region to coordinate their industrial policies and reinforce productive integration, and to generate new insights and evidence on the various pathways to green economic transformation.

The main objective of the workshop will be to strengthen the inter-governmental conversation needed to reach consensus around a common policy platform for environmental-friendly sectors, to foster industrial policy coordination, and to identify specific regional policy priorities.