Key Factors for Competitiveness & Innovation in the Caribbean :: Mariana Castro

Key Factors for Competitiveness & Innovation in the CaribbeanMariana CastroGeneral Manager, Latin America New Markets

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Our mission:

to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential

The Kinect Effect

Gaming was only the beginning

Today, the Kinect sensor and Natural User Interface technology is being used in the areas of health, education, arts and sciences.

www.xbox.com/en-US/Kinect/Kinect-Effect

Competitiveness & Innovation = IQ+ IP

A well-educated and skilled population, in combination with strong IP incentives—what we call “IQ+IP”—is key to helping drive the kind of innovation

that society needs.

Competitive advantages: Enablers to be developed

• Education : BA, T&T

• Math& Science Ed: BA, T&T

• Availability of latest tech. BA, JA

• Broadband: T&T, BA

• IPR protection (all)

• Education: BE, JA• Math& Science ed: BE, JA• Availability of latest tech:

BE, T&T• Capacity for innovation (all)• University-ind. collab R&D• Broaband (BE, JA)• Venture Cap. availability (all)

Caribbean: Competitiveness & Innovation

WEF: GCR, some indicators for BA, T&T, JA, BE

Fostering Education & local innovation

Several Imagine Cup winners have come from the Caribbean since 2005,

empowering young people to take their creativity, passion and imagination

towards technology on a national and global level.

DigiGirlz programs in Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica unite young girls

together who are interested in learning more about careers in

technology.

BizSpark assists start-upsWe gained access to technology, software and IT experts it would have otherwise cost us millions to acquire without Microsoft BizSpark

In the case of SA Ltd. we able to deliver a mobile commerce technology using development tools BizSpark gave us access to and not to mention the countless other projects we have worked on

- Damion Daley, CEO Software Architects

In the Caribbean:

Providing skills and technology to close to 30 startups in the region.