Challenges for Latin America in human capital and technological platforms to implement a cluster policy: Costa Rica as a case study.

Abstract

Cluster development policies have come to encourage cooperation between companies and to improve the general competitiveness. In most Latin American countries there is no public policy as such, and that is why this article is intended to contribute to overcome the main challenges in human capital and technological platforms. The methodology was qualitative. We interviewed 13 experts, taking Costa Rica as a case study and benchmarking with the Basque Country, Spain.
The results showed that both, in Costa Rica and Latin America there is a favorable environment for the creation of a public policy in the development of clusters. In human capital the main challenges were training, support programs and skilled workers recruitment. In technological platform, financing, identification of existing technology centers and the creation of new ones. This paper presents implications for public policy designers and decision makers.