- This new institutional framework, which is part of the decentralization process, aims to promote and support regional economic and productive development, with a special focus on improving the skills and opportunities of local entrepreneurs and companies..
Within the framework of his visit to the Atacama Region, the Executive Vice President of Corfo, José Miguel Benavente, met with the team of the Regional Office of Corfo to carry out an internal work day in order to define the strategic focuses that allow achieve sustainable productive development for the region. In addition, he received the visit of the Regional Governor, Miguel Vargas, an opportunity in which both authorities discussed the scope of the implementation in Atacama of the Regional Productive Development Committee (CDPR).
The function of this CDPR will be to promote and support regional economic and productive development, with a special focus on improving the capacities and opportunities for entrepreneurs and companies to develop their business projects, improve their productivity and sustainably increase their value. In addition, it must promote investment, entrepreneurship, research and development, and business innovation, co-financing or financing the execution of projects or programs in these areas.
In this regard, the Executive Vice President of Corfo, José Miguel Benavente, pointed out that “this is the consolidation of the policy that this current administration has to empower the regions with respect to decisions about work, link issues of productive development, innovation and entrepreneurship. This institutionality, in some way, channels the interests, the desires, the strategies, the perspectives of the territory and the people in its different spheres: business, university, also the political of the territory” and, he added, “that the fact that Atacama is one of the first to carry this, based on the experience that has been previously had, it is a huge opportunity for the region”.
The Committees will be collegiate instances with powers to make decisions regarding budget management and fund allocation. They will be chaired by the Regional Governor and made up of a minimum of 12 members and a maximum of 14, the majority of which will be of regional representation. Thus, the head of the Development and Industry Division and a director of the regional government, the economics seremi, three representatives of the national level, and a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 members who carry out academic activities or will form part of the CDPR. research, and/or productive business in the region.
In this context, the Governor of the Atacama Region, Miguel Vargas, valued the initiative and highlighted the need for it to be a representative body of the regional productive reality. “We are going to ensure that this instance has the broadest participation of all the entities, on the one hand, of the organizations that represent the State, obviously, Corfo, Sercotec, the Regional Government itself, which are very important entities in the link , particularly with micro and small entrepreneurs. But also in this instance there must be representation of the private world, particularly of entrepreneurs. We are going to ensure that the different important economic sectors of the region have representation in this instance and also the Regional Council (CORE), an organization that is also very relevant when it comes to making decisions about the resources that have to be approved to promote projects. and programs”.
Finally, the regional director of Corfo Atacama, Rosa Román, referred to the importance of this meeting, as well as the coordination work of Corfo and the Regional Government “our Executive Vice President of Corfo comes to support all the work we are doing in the framework of the implementation of the Regional Productive Development Committee, in collaboration with the Regional Government, where CORFO makes resources available to the region so that it is here in Atacama, where we can make the decisions to drive, approve and promote different initiatives that contribute to economic development in the promotion of production, innovation and entrepreneurship for the region”.
In this way, this 2023 our region, together with Valparaíso, O’Higgins and Los Lagos, will be the first to start with these new CDPR and, gradually, the rest of the regions will do so between 2023 and 2025.