I am pleased to welcome you this morning to this Third Meeting of Americas Competitiveness Authorities and Councils. Allow me to begin by extending, on behalf of the Organization of American States, our appreciation to the City of Atlanta for hosting this very important meeting.

I also would like to thank the United States Department of Commerce, the Inter-American Competitiveness Network and CIFAL for joining with the OAS in supporting the organization of this meeting, which aims to analyze the current competitiveness panorama and to dialogue about the necessary reforms and public policies for a more productive, competitive and prosperous region.

Allow me to congratulate all of you for taking part in this extraordinary moment in our countries’ history. Today we are gathering high-level competitiveness authorities and public-private competitiveness councils from 27 countries in the Western Hemisphere.

What started two years ago as a small gathering of competitiveness councils is today a vigorous effort reaching from North to South America, Central America and the Caribbean. In my view, this multilateral policy dialogue is more necessary than ever as we are moving towards an increasingly interdependent economy, in which international engagement, collaboration, knowledge, innovation and productivity assume a key role in ensuring the nations long term growth.

We believe that the launching of the Inter-American Competitiveness Network last year during the Americas Competitiveness Forum in Chile, with the support of the OAS, is an important instrument to strengthen and deepen collaboration, and to exchange best practices and lessons learned for formulating and implementing policies and reforms aimed at a more prosperous future.

As important as the establishment of the Inter-American Competitiveness Network, is the creation in recent years of national competitiveness and innovation councils throughout the Americas in charge of setting visions and strategies and planning actions for promoting competitiveness and pushing long term growth strategies within their countries, integrating public institutions and private actors.

Institutional arrangements and governance play a key role in these competitiveness councils, ensuring that they contribute with a long term strategic view to the system, capable of proposing and preserving a national development vision that transcends political cycles and governmental periods. In our view, business facilitation should be promoted through transparency and clear regulations and be accessible to all. In the end it is counter-productive to the objectives of sound and profitable business if these would be based on personal relations and privileges to the few in society.

Our countries face common challenges that call for the definition of joint efforts towards a hemispheric competitiveness agenda to lay the foundations for sustainable economic growth in the Americas. I would like to refer to only three challenges, where I believe greater collaboration is necessary to expand opportunities for our populations:

First, competitiveness and productivity go hand in hand and one of the main development policy challenges of the Latin American and Caribbean countries is to diagnose the causes of low productivity levels in the region and address in a serious and sustainable manner the origins of these low levels of productivity.

A recent IDB study highlights how low productivity growth is the main reason most Latin America and the Caribbean countries have lagged growth rates of both advanced countries and peer countries in East Asia. A typical Latin American country could have increased income per capita by 54 percent in the last five decades if its productivity had grown like the rest of the world during this period. Income per capita in a typical country would have almost doubled if its productivity was close to its full potential.

There is a huge, untapped opportunity for policymakers in the region to invest in reforms and sensible policies that can allow the region to quickly catch up with other regions of the world. And high level dialogues such as this one provide a forum for sharing experiences, best practices and for seeking common solutions to enhance our countries’ competitiveness.

Second, modern, competitive and open markets regulations must be accompanied by entrepreneurship and innovation. Countries in Latin America, in particular have signed more than 50 trade agreements in the past 15 years. Nonetheless, the market potential afforded by opening borders for our goods and services have not been fully exploited due to low export diversification and little participation in global value chains required to compete internationally.

Furthermore, our region has not taken advantage of the growth potential from regional integration. For instance, Latin America and Caribbean intraregional trade is about 18% or one fifth of total trade in goods compared to that of the European Union, which amounts to three-fourths of its total trade. And if I may add here, we will not be able to utilize the full potential of open markets if OAS member states are not able to solve border and territorial disputes or political differences between countries adequately, in absence of which competiveness and trade are negatively impacted,.

Despite greater efforts to open markets abroad, countries in the region have not fostered a knowledge infrastructure, leveraging research and development for commercial purposes relative to other parts of the world due to the heavy reliance in the endowment of natural resources and lack of diversification and innovation. Countries that excel in innovation and knowledge-based products and services are those that have invested in the intellectual development of their citizen. In the Western Hemisphere measures need to be taken to promote the education in mathematics and engineering, as the fundamentals for optimally using the creative potential in our societies.

Korea invests 3.5% of its GDP in R&D, while Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole only invest 0.5% of GDP. While 90% of R&D investments in developed countries come from the private sector, in our region the private sector only invests 10% of total research and development investments.

Our countries need to develop long-term comprehensive and consistent long term state policies on innovation with the participation of public, private, academia, NGO’s and civil society to promote industrial, services and agricultural innovation aimed at generating economic returns, reduce poverty and inequality. I am pleased to announce that last October the Inter-American Commission on Science and Technology met at the OAS and agreed to work on a 2025 innovation agenda for the Americas.

In my view, these regional efforts to seek common solutions to face the challenges posed by the current global economy are a good example of the value of joining forces to promote productivity, innovation and competitiveness in our hemisphere.

Third, the updating and modernization of the regulatory framework in our countries needs more attention if we are to eliminate barriers to entrepreneurship and innovation. As Jose Maria Figueres points out in his paper “Key Elements for a 2020 Competitiveness Agenda”, our countries need to strengthen their regulatory frameworks to improve the confidence of the private sector, to promote competitive conditions in the cities and regions of the continent and to help the productive sectors adjust to the new realities of globalization.

The Global Competiveness Report of the World Economic Forum states that “between June 2009 and May 2010 governments in 117 economies implemented 216 business regulation reforms making it easier to start and operate a business, strengthening transparency and property rights and improving the efficiency of commercial dispute resolution and bankruptcy procedures”. This is good progress, but much more needs to be done by utilizing the potential of e-governance, and information and communication technology, even more.

Greater collaboration in the area of sound regulatory reform among government but also with the private sector therefore remains a high priority to help eliminate barriers to entrepreneurship, innovation and economic growth. Twelve (12) of twenty (20) economies in Latin America reformed business regulation to expand opportunities for local firms in the past year.

Colombia and Peru have been among the world’s most consistent reformers of business regulation and Mexico is the region’s top ranked in overall ease of doing business with online one-stop shop for initiating business registration, improved construction permitting, and increased options for online payment of taxes. And in the Caribbean, Grenada was among the 10 economies worldwide that most improved its business environment in the past year. By sharing country successful experiences with reforms, we can facilitate and build momentum for change in other countries of the region.

Statistics have shown that countries with efficient business regulatory framework attract more businesses and therefore have a higher business density on average.

As the Secretariat of the Summit of the Americas, we at the OAS are pleased to see a discussion today and tomorrow about a 2020 Competitiveness Agenda in the Americas that could certainly provide an important input for the upcoming meeting of the Heads of State and Governments in Colombia in 2012.

Given the smaller sizes of many countries in the region, we should view our countries as a system in which all parts are equally important and contribute to increasing the region’s capacities to compete in global markets. A united Latin America and Caribbean can certainly be an alternative to the services and knowledge industries that have flourished in India and South East Asia. That’s why at the OAS we place great importance on an inter-American forum for dialogue and networks, such as the Inter-American Competitiveness Network, as a way to support increase welfare and economic growth in the region.

Therefore, it is my hope that just as today you are all taking part in this important regional dialogue, that through partnerships and collaboration you strengthen the institutions required to promote competitiveness and set out clear long term objectives for increased productivity , entrepreneurship, innovation and regulatory frameworks to develop our countries as knowledge based, innovation-driven, participative and inclusive economies.

Ultimately, ladies and gentlemen, let’s keep in mind that in the current global and regional economic environment, it is more than ever about people, about creating, through competiveness enhancing policies, well-paying regular and sustainable jobs. This will contribute to stability, security and peace in our societies, fostering democracy and governance, which in itself will then enhance the prosperity of our peoples.

I thank you for your kind attention!