Let's turn Costa Rica into a great Science and Technology Park

Let's imagine that in Costa Rica we are able to stimulate the link and manage the flow of knowledge and technology between universities, research institutions, companies and markets; and that we can also promote the creation and growth of innovative companies through incubation and centrifugal generation mechanisms.

It sounds complicated, but this is precisely what science and technology parks do in developed countries such as Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom, France and Japan, in order to increase the capacity for innovation and the level of competitiveness of their societies.

The new knowledge-based economy we live in forces countries to compete based on their ability to generate innovation. The challenge that we face in Costa Rica is that our productive structure functions as a true virtuous circle of innovation, where value is constantly added to the production of goods and services through the application of new knowledge resulting from research. scientific and technological development.

Countries, as centers that generate innovation, compete to attract investment and human capital, and to achieve improvements in strategic indicators for their development. Any country that aspires to improve its competitive position as a region of innovation, both regionally and globally, must promote innovative activity in companies located in the country, including SMEs; increase the quality of spending on research and scientific-technological development carried out by companies that allows an increase in the number of registered patents in developed countries; increase the number of companies linked in projects with generators of knowledge, and with other companies, for joint innovation projects; redirect the R&D offer of universities and R&D centers so that it is effectively linked with the business fabric and produces innovative products and services; increase the critical mass of researchers per research group to strengthen the proactive work of technology transfer and increase foreign investment from innovative countries.

World-class parks are recognized as environments with infrastructure, activities and services for interaction and cooperation that allow the complete fertilization of ideas and the flow of learning, knowledge and technology. This environment stimulates the generation of research and development (R&D), entrepreneurship and education, the bases of a permanent system of innovation.

In Costa Rica, the development of science and technology parks could allow the creation of more sources of employment with high added value; the increase in the number of companies that carry out R&D in strategic cluster sectors for the country; the decentralization of employment sources to areas close to where our human talent lives, and the increase in tax collection by the companies channeled into the park, thus allowing local governments to reinvest this income in their communities.

Costa Rica can and must transition from its current model of free zones to one of science and technology parks that enhance its capacity for innovation and the talent of its human resources.