With the goal that the new Mexican state administration includes new economic development projects, in addition to putting itself on a par with states such as Guanajuato, the Council of Chambers and Business Associations of the State of Mexico (concaem) proposed that at least 1% of the entity’s annual budget be focused on science and technology, in addition to innovation models.
In this regard, the president of concaemGilberto Sauza Martínez, pointed out that on an annual average 624 million pesos are allocated to these items, and if this proposal is taken into account, the new percentage could be equivalent to 3,500 million.
“That is, 1% of the 356,816.9 million pesos that were given in this year’s budget. This year only 624 million was applied as a budget to the Mexican Council of Science and Technology”, he added.
The budget allocation proposal is accompanied by two initiatives, the first consists of the creation of an academic figure financed by the productive sector called Agentes Generadores de Innovación (AGI).
“Simply put, an AGI would be a student, academic or researcher with sufficient skills to identify or solve problems in the productive sector and society,” he said.
The second proposal consists of the creation of a strategic program and of a technological information node, in which the government, academia and companies are linked for the management and analysis of data in a massive way.
“We seek to generate changes in the economic ecosystem, environment and that have a social impact to transform the quality of life of the Mexican population. The innovation projects must be exclusive to the government and be directed to the areas where the private initiative does not invest”, he commented.
Actions to strengthen the workforce
Sauza Martínez said that work has been done to strengthen the workforce and increase the rate of students related to innovation.
“In addition to theoretical knowledge within educational institutions, we seek to generate a model for the generation of soft skills, which impact the development of graduates within companies, generate value and strengthen the entrepreneurship model,” he stressed.
And it is that, he explained, research in social and economic matters indicates that a person with just one more year of academic training and a benchmark in technological matters can increase their income by up to 10 percent.
