Home / Hélice / Volume 9 (2020) / Hélice Volume 9 Issue 3

GREEN INFORMATION and COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) INNOVATION TRANSFER and ADAPTATION PROGRAM

A Korean-Colombian Collaborative Successful Practice

Danilo Piaggesi
Managing Director
Knowledge for Development (K4D)
Organization in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations
mgr(at)k4d.org

 

1. Project Background

The Problem

The industry sector in Colombia accounts for 28% of energy consumption (second only to transportation with 35%); and manufacturing and construction industries are responsible for 20$ of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere (again second to transportation with 33%).

One crucial factor that affects the inability of Colombian industries to become more energy- efficient and less pollutant is technology obsolescence. The University of El Rosario´s Research Line on Technology Change and Strategic Innovation, part of its Business Administration Faculty, has conducted research on energy use and digital technology applications, and results show that one of the most serious problems faced by the Colombian productive sector is precisely technology obsolescence. This phenomenon affects prominently production processes, and has a direct impact on the environment, as well as on the productivity of each production factor.

The human capital behind Colombian industries is handicapped by an insufficiently prepared labor force; only 0.3% of employees in Colombian industries have a Master’s or PhD degree; yet, statistics show that it is this highly educated segment, the one with the greatest opportunities to put together an enterprise, that will succeed, as this segment is overwhelmingly motivated by “opportunity” (90,5%) rather than “necessity”, which tends to be the reason behind the great majority of new business openings, mostly headed by entrepreneurs who only finished high-school. Additionally, slower than desirable progress has been detected in engineering education, both in terms of teaching as well as in research, and the same is true for post-graduate education – master’s and PhD.
The main barriers for the development of opportunity-based enterprises are: (i) the lack of access to innovative products and services that would allow the enterprise to differentiate its outputs from those of others; and (ii) the lack of access to funding in the very early stages, particularly seed-money.

The Model

The Republic of Korea has made significant progress in developing the so-called ¨Green ICT¨, which have a two-fold purpose: first, to reduce the environmental footprint of industry and other productive sectors vital to the country´s economy through the application of information and communication technologies (ICT), and second, to achieve this while avoiding the creation of an added source of contamination derived from the use of the ICT themselves. The reduction in the productive sectors´ footprint is accomplished by gains in automation; lower mobility needs; greater efficiency; fewer redundancies; and the like. Low-environmental impact ICT is achieved by reductions in direct electro-magnetic and other emissions; maximum energy efficiency; lower hardware waste generation; chemicals recycling; more efficient cooling and isolation systems; optimal workspace design; and others.

The Republic of Korea, through its Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) is fostering the adoption of “green technologies” both in public and private sector operations, having established ambitious goals for the development and dissemination of green technology in different production areas. Given Korea’s strong performance in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector, and in line with its green technology drive, Korea is a growing leader in the development of “green ICTs”, a novel and promising application aimed at “encompassing environmentally sustainable information technology and the use of information technology to contribute to environment preservation”.1 Korea’s Green ICT policy derives from Korea’s Prime Minister Lee Myung-bak issuance of a “Basic Law on Low-Carbon Green Growth” (2009), which sets an ambitious goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30% below “business-as-usual” projections through 2020 through a low-carbon green-growth policy.

The policy is aimed at tackling Climate Change while providing new drivers for the economy. To instrument the policy, the Government of Korea has pledged to use 2% of its gross domestic product annually to promote research and develop in new green infrastructure. The MKE is funding an array of instruments to foster the implementation of this policy domestically; internationally, in keeping with government directives to expand the international exposure of Korean-developed technology, the MKE and the Korean Ministry of Environment coordinate with the Ministry of Strategy and Finance to work in cooperation with the Korean International Development Agency (KOICA) for the same purpose. KOICA, which has representation in Colombia, is able to fund pilot projects to facilitate development and transfer of Korean-originated and jointly developed ICT innovations, upon request from Colombia’s sector leader institutions, in this case, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.

The Opportunity

The present practice is aimed at identifying and transferring those Green ICT skills developed by the Republic of Korea which can be of direct use to a host of Colombian industries volunteering for a pilot attempt at improving production technology through environmentally friendly technology. Besides benefiting these Colombian industries, the project will offer Korean technology innovators the opportunity to show-case their products in the Colombian and Latin American markets. The proposed project is framed in the context of the sustainable development policies pursued by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MADS) of Colombia, which is its principal institutional beneficiary of the project. As a result of this project, a group of at least twenty staff of MADS, ten graduate students (master’s and PhD) of UR, and fifteen members of participating industries would have gained first-hand experience and received training on an array of Green ICT. Specific ICT will be selected in coordination with MADS and technology transfer partners in the Republic of Korea.

The Alignment with National Policies and Priorities

The proposed project responds directly to the orientations contained in Colombia´s NDP, as expressed in:

Chapter III Sustainable Development and Competitiveness, strategic guidelines for Innovation for Economic Growth (Section A); Competitiveness and Growth in Productivity (Section B); and Growth and Employment Generation Engines (Section C).
Chapter IV Environmental Sustainability and Risk Prevention, strategic guidelines for Integrated and Shared Environmental Management (Section A); and Energy Basket and Efficiency (Section D).

The project will contribute to the successful implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP) in the following fields:

Development of practical models for the application of ICT to raise industrial productivity while at the same time reducing the environmental impacts of such activity;
Establish an operational channel for technology transfer between the Republic of Korea – which is singled-out in NDP as a model in terms of innovation and R&D – and Colombia’s industrial sector;
Foster participation of industrial companies under diverse forms of association, to lower their costs for technology conversion by achieving economies of scale;
Forge a strategic alliance between the university, industrial and governmental sectors capable of generating benefits for each of them – improving the university’s capability to respond to the demand springing from the industrial sector; fostering the demand for highly specialized technology innovation employment among industry; and informing governmental strategy definition through practical experience accumulated during the execution of the pilot project.; and
Contribute to widening the conceptual basis of the NDP by introducing the concept of Green ICT as a field new to Latin America, where Colombia could find a niche to exert regional leadership.

The Government Backing

Colombia’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MADS) guides the adoption of sustainability criteria applicable to the management of the productive and institutional sectors, promotes the incorporation of environmental management systems, and fosters technological re-structuring and changes in consumption patterns to environmentally sustainable patterns.

Within the Ministry, the Directorate of Sustainable Sector Development (DDSS) is responsible for proposing policies, strategies and regulations to fulfill those objectives. Among the MADS functions is the development of sector management instruments through pilot projects capable of channeling technical assistance to assist the adoption of sustainable growth strategies in the various economic sectors, including the use of science, technology and innovation as tools for improved competitiveness and development. In pursuing these goals, the MADS promotes Public-Private Partnerships to facilitate the direct transfer of environmental management systems to its users. To undertake these activities, the DDSS manages the channeling of international cooperation resources to complement Ministry investment in this area.

The International Reach

Knowledge for Development (K4D), a non-for-profit in a special consultative status with the United Nations and acting throughout Latin America, has conceptualized and supported the development of the project in fulfillment of its institutional mandate to further the implementation of knowledge-based and knowledge-rich economic growth. K4D’s pre-investment resources have allowed the identification of the Korean partners, led by the University of Dongukk (UD), one of Korea’s top institutions of higher learning. UD has graduate schools in Image and Information Technology; Business Administration; Communication and Information; and Industrial Technology.

The long trajectory and experience of the University of El Rosario have facilitated the contextualization of the project to circumstances in Colombia and guarantees the implementation of the project under rigorous theoretical tenants. The University of El Rosario is bringing to the project the participation of the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico, one of the most advanced R&D organizations in Latin America, with a research focus on the creation of wealth through innovation, technological development and knowledge administration. K4D plans to expand the experience gained in this project to other countries in Latin America through an analysis of lessons-learned and promotion of the project and its results in international fora, in which all local and international partners will participate.

“GREEN ICT”
refers to…

How the use of ICT can improve environmental management and performance and reduce the environmental impact of economic activities by increasing automation; reducing mobility needs – as in tele-working; improving efficiency; reducing redundancies; allowing real-time monitoring; etc.; and,

How can ICT systems have lesser environmental impact themselves by adopting virtualization to reduce emissions (cloud computing?); maximizing energy efficiency using lower voltage systems; reducing electromagnetic pollution footprint; recycling hardware and chemical byproducts; improving efficiency of ICT operations by area cooling and optimization of space; etc.

2. Project Objective
(Short Term and Long Term)

The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia, through its Directorate of International Cooperation Sustainable Sector Development (DDSS), requests the assistance of the Korean International Development Agency (KOICA) to undertake a pilot test of adaptive transfer of “green” ICT technology innovation developed by specialized agencies in the Republic of Korea, to be applied to a host of Colombian industries volunteering to participate in the process.

The short-term objective of the project is to demonstrate how newly developed green ICT technologies, adapted to the particular circumstances of the beneficiaries, can:

Effectively reduce their environmental footprint;
Minimize undesirable environmental liabilities of the use of such ICT systems; and
Generate organizational savings as well as sustainable business and employment opportunities.

Thematic sectors where impacts are desired – climate change adaptation and mitigation; water and sanitation; transportation; etc – which would constitute the target of the pilot would be chosen by pilot project executing agencies (see Pilot Execution section below), based on priorities expressed by the MADS. Pilot project executing agencies will select the most appropriate ICT to be tested out of the array of ICT offered by the Korean R&D centers.

The long-term objective of the project is for the Ministry to derive empirically tested observations to support possible public policy, strategy and regulatory instruments to apply the results of the pilot more generally.

3. Relevance with the National Development Plan of the Host Country

Colombia’s National Development Plan (NDP) contains three areas of policy that are relevant for the present project proposal: (i) innovation for economic growth; (ii) sustainable production and consumption; and (iii) competitiveness of the industrial sector.

Innovation is a major engine of growth in the NDP, which heralds innovation as a fundamental strategy to transform and inject dynamism to economic sectors that have traditionally been at the base of Colombian economy, thus guaranteeing the sustainability of growth and the competitiveness of the country. NDP observes that Colombia is considerably behind other countries in terms of investment in R&D, in which Colombia invests only 0.2% of its GDP; such investment is significantly lower than what the Republic of Korea (the one country the NDP points at as a model in this area) invests in the same area (reportedly, 3.2% of Korea’s GDP). NDP establishes a direct relationship between a country’s investment in R&D and its economic development, pointing at the exponential growth attained by countries like Korea thanks to strong investment in innovation and human capital, starting from a productive structure like that of Colombia. The innovation policy put forward by NDP is based in three pillars: adequate financing, adequate education, and stronger organization. The following strategies are presented as crucial to achieve the goals set by the policy:

Foster a culture of innovation by favoring those mechanisms that facilitate and promote such innovation, in particular Information and Communication Technologies (ICT); stronger forms of association among industrial and entrepreneurial sectors; and productive strategic alliances between the industry, universities and governmental agencies.

Favor technology transfers from countries that are ahead of Colombia, seeking to adapt such technologies to make them directly useful to the Colombian context. Such technology transfer process should allow, at the same time, a parallel development of indigenous knowledge and innovation.

Increase investment in innovation among local industries with support from the government through financing lines specifically tailored to the needs of investment projects the same industries and entrepreneurial sectors may present.

Strengthen the development of human capital through higher education in technology innovation and R&D in the fields needed to support growth in areas where Colombia holds comparative advantages, thus modifying the output of University-level education so that it responds to the needs of the productive sector. This strategy will aim to curb currently weak participation of higher education in the industry’s labor force (where 50% have reached high school; 12% have some form of professional training; and only 0.3% have master’s or PhD degrees). NDP points at the need to promote the development of scientific knowledge in Colombian Universities geared towards answering the demand coming from the productive sector.

2. The sustainable production and consumption policy seeks to reduce Colombia’s energy intensity (total energy consumption vis a vis GDP), and reduce its environmental impacts, for which regulations and technical parameters to minimize such impacts are established.

NDP does not cover the issue of Green ICT, nor the need to reduce potential environmental impacts derived from the application of such technologies. NDP sketches measures to reduce impact derived from the telecommunication infrastructure that is needed to run ICT, but falls short of addressing other impact areas such as energy efficiency or hardware waste disposal.

Colombia is a low GHG emissions country, with 0.37% of global emissions (data for 2004), which aims at continuing along a low-carbon development strategy; Colombia expects to be able to benefit from international carbon markets, prioritizing activities that would help mitigate climate change impacts.

3. In the area of competitiveness, NDP states the intention of the Colombian government to promote the use of ICT in the entrepreneurial sector as a basis for promoting further investment, improving productivity and consolidating more competitive industries and businesses. NDP directly associates increases in industrial competitiveness to a reduction in the costs of energy (mainly electrical energy) and an increase in energy effectiveness. Among the strategies presented to foster those objectives are the concession of fiscal incentives, as well as possible subsidies for industries that generate additional employment. Also, it is expected that a gain in energy efficiency on the part of the industry would result in lowered production costs, which would allow the companies to raise employment. NDP prioritizes investment on the micro and small and medium enterprises (MIPYMES) sector, as well as in sectors which have the potential to make Colombia more competitive in international markets.

4. Project Description

a. Title

Green Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Innovation Transfer and Adaptation Program

b. Project Activities

The project is organized in three components: (i) tailored technical and organizational specifications; (ii) pilot application phase; and (iii) pilot replication and public policy implications.

Component 1:
Tailored Technical and Organizational Specifications

Selection of thematic areas, economic sectors and participating organizations/industries (#3-5) in Colombia
Survey on current environmental footprint of participating organizations/industries, and potential areas where significant improvements could be achieved by the application of green ICT instruments
Selection of Korean R&D and Institutes: (i) specialized in ICT R&D for the generation of ICT innovative products and services; and (ii) specialized in environmentally sustainable TIC and industrial applications
Selection of Colombian R&D centers (#2) to participate in the pilot
Joint – Colombian and Korean – analysis of available ICT innovation products and services, and identification of further needs in terms of: (i) jointly developed new products and services; and/or (ii) adaptation to existing innovation products and services
Selection of green ICT palette, in conjunction with Korean and Colombian participants
Construction of culturally sensitive, appropriate (adapted if necessary) ICT packaged into “knowledge modules” to be used in the green ICT knowledge transfer
Tailored Pilots technical and organizational specifications design.

Component 2:
Pilot application

Application of ICT green technology knowledge-modules to participating Colombian organizations/industries: (i) application of Green ICT to improve environmental performance; and (ii) application of strategies tailored to achieve zero net environmental impact from the application of ICT systems
Development of best practice and methodology for replication
Analysis of possible incentives to encourage the productive sector to invest in green ICT to make their products more efficient and competitive in the market at the same time as reducing their environmental footprint.
Brokerage of industry to industry innovation technology exchange events between Korean and Colombian industries
Brokerage of Korean to Colombian R&D center collaboration and technology transfer
Training of students and MADS personnel on the environmental and Green Technology audit process
Professional and student-teacher short-term exchange events among participating agencies and main project beneficiary (MADS)
Promotion through awareness raising events.

Component 3:
Pilot replication and public policy implications

Analysis of best practice data in an international context
Analysis of potential public policy implications
Proposition of policy (incentives and regulations) guidelines, goals and instruments to measure progress, and strategy to multiply effect
Analysis of potential for carbon emissions market exchange, as Korea is the world’s ninth largest polluter, with its carbon dioxide emissions rising more than 100% over the last two decades, while Colombia ranks low in emissions of GHG even in the context of Latin America (lower than half of the region´s average)
International events to discuss results and lessons learned.

c. Target Site (Location)

Current investment in scientific, technological and innovation activities in Colombia are highly concentrated in a few regions. First are the cities of Bogotá and Medellin, traditional industrial centers that, together, attract seventy percent of the country’s investment in those areas. Other cities like Barranquilla and Cartagena in Colombia’s Caribbean region, have achieved significant progress in industrialization; others worth mentioning include Pereira and Manizales, along the Coffee Corridor, as well as Cali, a large business center in the Valley of Cauca. The project’s strategy will be to seek the participation of industrial companies who represent those areas with greater business development, where private investment capabilities will be the highest, but will also include companies located in the regions where such investment is significantly lower, in an effort to maximize marginal benefit of the technology transfer.

d. Target Group

The project would focus its efforts on the industrial segment of the MIPYMES, a stronghold of Colombian development, which constitute 96.4% of all private sector enterprises and which concentrate 80.8% of employment sources (Colombia’s Department of Statistics, DANE). It is in this sector where a reconversion of the technological makeup towards the use of Green ICT could have the greatest impact with the lowest cost, and therefore, working with the MIPYMEs project results would have the greatest chance of being replicated and multiplied through the various lines of government financing available for the benefits of that particular industrial segment.

Among the MIPYMES, the project will seek – acting in coordination and agreement with MADS and industry associations – to prioritize those industrial areas that make the greatest contribution in terms of emissions of green-house gases, which statistically are the manufacturing and construction industries. Together they account for 20% of total CO2 emissions; and are second only to the energy industries, which contribute 23% of GHG and the transportation sector, which contributes the most with 33% of GHG.

e. Outputs

Component 1:
Tailored Technical and Organizational Specifications

Selection of thematic areas and participating organizations-industries
Results of survey of environmental footprint of participating Colombian industries
Selection of Korean R&D centers and organizations
Selection of Colombian R&D centers and organizations
Results of the analysis of alternative ICT products and services, adaptation needs and data base
Selection of Green ICT palette to apply in pilot agreed with MADS and participating industries
Green ICT Knowledge packages to use in the technology transfer process
Final design document for the five-pilots.

Component 2:
Pilot Application

Analytical reports of Korean road-show events
Specialized and support assistance reports per participating industry
K Green ICT Packages, one per industrial field
Before and after environmental audits of participating industries
Analytical report on applicable incentives for Green ICT adoption in the Colombian contexts
Report of industry-to-industry exchange events
Report on R&D center-to-center collaboration events
At least twenty students of the University of El Rosario have received training in Green ICT application and audit, for graduate credit, with classes imparted in Korea and Mexico
At least twenty staff from MADS have received graduate level training on Green ICT applications and public policy derivations, including a fifteen-day visit to Korean facilities
One public campaign summarizing MADS’s efforts in this area.

Component 3:
Pilot replication and policy implication

Best practice report with analysis and recommendations
Analytical report on potential public policy implications derived from the implementation of the pilots
Analytical report suggesting possible incentives and regulations to promote the adoption of Green ICT among Colombian industrial sector
Expert analysis report on opportunities for debt-swaps Colombia-Korea in the carbon market
Report analyzing international reception to the Colombian project in international venues, and suggestions for further work and replication.

f. Expected Results

Colombian Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development will obtain:

Twenty staff trained in green ICT design, industrial auditing and public policy implications, including short-term in-Korea events;
A replicable model to multiply the experience to other establishments in the same industrial area and or other industrial areas;
Analytical material to develop public policy and strategy to improve environmental sustainability in priority sectors while at the same time mitigating potential negative impacts that could have made the policy proposal less attractive to its target audiences;
Opportunity to contribute to the attainment of MDG by shaping a policy that would promote lower carbon emissions.

Korean industries have showcased their best and most up-to-date green ICT, have benefitted from cross-fertilization with Latin American industrial and R&D partners, and have contributed to the furthering of Korean government policy in the area of green technology and international development aid
Participating Korean University and institutes have helped implement Korea’s Green ICT policy directive under Korea´s “Basic Law on Low-Carbon Green Growth” and the internationalization of Korean innovation expertise
Cross-fertilization between Korean and Latin American research, academic and industrial worlds has enriched both and has opened doors for further collaboration
The University of El Rosario has developed and tested an innovative Knowledge-transfer and cross-fertilization system improving managers’ access to Knowledge-modules relevant to their work
The Korean University has gained experience in cross-cultural technology innovation transfer and has given its faculty and students an opportunity to participate in new technological developments and job markets
Students and teachers from Colombian and Korean Universities have gained practical experience in the application of Green ICT to a practical case
K4D has brokered the relationship between Korean and Colombian R&D and industry to find opportunities for ICT transfer under win-win situations
K4D has furthered its strategic mandate to promote the application of Knowledge Economy as an instrument for development in Latin America.

5. Project Sustainability

Project sustainability is guaranteed by its own design, which follows closely NDP’s objectives and strategic guidelines. NDP targets the technological modernization of the MIPYMES productive processes and includes provisions for the creation of public financing programs to support ICT insertion into MIPYMES productive structures and operations, as well as to support training entrepreneurs in ICT related subjects. Results from the pilots to be implemented by the project will identify new lines of investment, which in turn will become research, technology development and/or institutional strengthening projects which could apply for public and private investment lines. The companies participating in technology transfer sponsored by the project would be eligible for financing of fiscal incentives offered by the government to promote private investment in innovation-related activities.

In these senses, the project will contribute to the fulfillment of NDP objectives by providing advance financing to support the phases of conceptualization and pre-investment for innovation project development; these preliminary phases tend to be the most difficult to fund under governmental financing lines, as such lines tend to expect the proponent to come up with sufficient research on a solution for its needs as to allow clear-cut project assessment. While medium and large enterprises are often able to front the requisite funds to perform those preliminary investments, doing so is quite impossible for MIPYMES. In order to gain access to government funding, MIPYMES routinely need to recur to other sources to finance such preliminary investment, sources that tend to imply processing time that may leave MIPYMES outside of the competitive process. The proposed project aims at facilitating a rapid insertion of the MIPYMES into the current of benefits to be derived from the NDP, and plans to do so through practical pilots, focused on sub-sectors that are representative of the target sectors.

On the other hand, after project completion, it is expected that the lines of cooperation that would have been established between Korean and Colombian industrial and R&D partners, as well as the collaboration that would have been started between the two Universities, will be incentive enough to ensure that they will continue well beyond the formal duration of the project.

In order to ensure that the investment made under the project will produce new work and financial lines for participating sectors, the project will devote the full third phase to the analysis of project-sponsored best practices, on which future replication could be modeled. Also, during that third phase, the project will analyze and produce recommendations concerning the possibility of Colombian participants entering international carbon markets, based on possible reductions in carbon emissions brought about by the change in technology. Finally, the project will work with participating industries to identify internal financing lines which could be accessed to promote a deepening and multiplication of the project’s positive impacts, following upon the lead provided by the growth targets set under the NDP.

6. Project Implementing Organization

The project would be executed under the responsibility of the University of El Rosario and K4D. Two other organizations will participate in the project: the University of Dongukk in Seoul, Republic of Korea; and the Technology Institute of Monterrey (ITESM) from Mexico. The MADS will provide feedback and will review and comment on project outputs and outcomes.

a. Name of the Organization

University of El Rosario was founded in 1653 and is the second oldest university in Latin America. Located in Bogota, Colombia, it is known as “The Cradle of the Republic”. The institution remains very influential in Colombian culture and public life. At least twenty-eight of Colombia’s presidents have been students of this university. It has influenced and participated in very important transitional processes like the revolution for the independence from Spain and the drafting of the Political National Constitution of 1991. It is the only Colombian university accredited by the European Association of Universities; it is ranked as “Very Superior”. The Faculty of Business Administration would be the lead faculty participating in the project through its Research Line on Technology Change and Strategic Innovation. The University of El Rosario will serve as the link with the Ministry of Environment, facilitating their participation in all technical matters and providing information on the results of the pilots to contribute to the discussion of regulations or policy if appropriate. The University will also coordinate the participation of local industrial complexes in the pilots. University of El Rosario will be in charge of administering project resources devoted to the acquisition of local products and services needed for the implementation of the pilot.

Knowledge for Development (K4D) is a non-for-profit non-governmental organization in a special consultative status with the United Nations, which houses the International Knowledge Economy Program (IKEP). Under IKEP, K4D implements development projects where the concept and instruments of the Knowledge Economy are applied to specific development challenges. For the proposed project, K4D would coordinate all international activities, in particular the relationship with the Korean partners. K4D would broker (using specific MOUs) the choice of green information and communication technologies offered by participating Korean institutions, and the sector-specific priorities selected with the MADS. K4D will also develop “best practice” studies and promote their analysis and presentation in international fora. K4D will be in charge of administering project resources earmarked to the acquisition of international services.

b. Other organizations which will be involved in the project implementation

The University of Dongguk is a private institution established in 1906, and ranks among Korea’s top institutions of higher education. Its distinguishing character is its openness to all cultures and faiths, and its intended purpose is to act as a bridge between East and West, and as such strives to make Korean culture and values known world-wide while at the same time opening opportunities for its students to learn of the world outside Korea. In its Seoul campus, the University of Dongguk has graduate schools in Image and Information Technology; Business Administration; Communication and Information; and Industrial Technology. It is responsible for identifying the Korean “supply” side of the project, and of negotiating the participation of each Korean Institute, Center or organization. Additionally, the University of Dongukk will coordinate with University of El Rosario to implement the exchange programs through which the project experience will be multiplied and its benefits furthered. The University of Dongukk will work under an MOU with K4D, which will administer project resources devoted to cover the costs of the Koran University’s participation.

Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM) is one of the most advanced R&D organizations in Latin America. It was created in 1943 and is a highly prestigious institution. ITESM’s EGADE Business School started in 2007, a research focus on the creation of wealth through innovation, technological development and knowledge administration. The objective of this research is to design a systemic, techno-economic-social model supported by: information and communication technologies, modern innovation approaches, network-based economies, and economic principles of increasing value returns to create economic and social prosperity in emerging countries. Among the lines of research currently underway are regional systems of innovation; clusters of innovation and competition; networks of techno-economical-social value; and impact of the impact of information technologies on economic growth in the social and environmental development of emerging countries. The ITM has a faculty of some three hundred international staff. The ITESM will be in charge of the technology innovation review and adaptation for the project, working closely with K4D and the University of El Rosario to select the most appropriate innovations to be applied under the project. Once a certain innovation has been identified and selected for pilot transfer, the ITM will consider the need to make adaptations to help the fit within the Colombian (and Latin American) context. The ITESM will work under the MOU with K4D and the University of El Rosario.

 

7. Undertakings of the Host Country

The Government of the Republic of Colombia will participate and support project execution through the MADS, which has entered a Covenant (“Association Framework Covenant”), for the purpose of: cooperating in the technical, scientific and technology fields; foster joint development of programs, activities and projects aimed at providing advice, performing research, education and extension in the fields of technology development and innovation associated to the area of environment, as well as others that would support technology development and innovation that would be decided in agreement between the University of El Rosario and MADS, for which purpose both institutions agree to join efforts, resources, capabilities and opportunities.

In order to ensure the proper development of this agreement, Specific Covenants will be developed to tackle specific subjects that involve different units of the MADS and of the University of El Rosario. Such detailed agreements will describe the areas, fields, projects and activities that would be developed, and the specific conditions under which such activities would be undertaken. Following the respective interests of the two institutions, the following priority fields of cooperation have been identified:

Use and application of information and communication technologies through the so-called “green technologies”;
Environmental studies on the impact of technology change on different productive sectors of Colombia’s industry;
Identification and analysis of best practices in strategic management of innovation for the purpose of promoting, developing and accelerating the growth of industries through in inclusion of environmental subjects.

Each project and program activity must follow the public interest and be geared towards benefitting the community.

The University of El Rosario and the MADS have committed themselves to the following:

Provide all academic and institutional advice and follow up needed for the adequate implementation of the programs and projects to be developed under the Covenant;
Propose and select those institutions who would participate in each of the programs and projects to be implemented;
Undertake the activities included in the programs and projects that result of the agreement;
Nominate the administrative coordination for the programs and projects to be implemented;

Take necessary provisions in reference to the coordination of human and technical resources that would be required for the adequate implementation of the foreseen programs and projects;
Facilitate the participation of teachers and students;
Collect information needed for the implementation of programs and projects;
Request and obtain, following requisite legal and budgetary procedures, financing from international and local sources to fund the implementation of programs and projects, gearing towards achieving self-sustained processes.

University of El Rosario, in agreement with MADS, commits itself to:

Designate the team of teachers, students, and administrative personnel needed to implement the programs and projects that have been agreed by both parties;
Prepare the instruments needed to facilitate each intervention in terms of technical assistance and follow-up, using a participatory methodology in the studies, programs and projects to be implemented;
Promote inter-institutional cooperation arrangements, both locally and internationally, with organizations of the public and private sectors, as may be required for the adequate implementation of specific programs and projects. In each case, it will use a participatory methodology, and in the case of learning processes, it will follow the continuing-education method as regulated by University of El Rosario.
MADS, in turn, commits itself to:

Make available its data bases with information at the municipal level, which will be used in the design of programs and projects;
Contribute necessary human, technical and financial resources for the successful fulfillment of the objectives set for the Covenant;
Undertake all other functions pertaining to the normal operative implementation of the programs and projects undertaken by MADS.

Beyond the provisions of the Covenant, MADS will contribute non-monetized in-kind support, consisting of its staff’s time devoted to accompanying and supervising project execution, as well as the participation of twenty members of MADS staff in following up the implementation of the pilots and in the training trips planned and financed under the project.

 

 

 

 

Published by the Triple Helix Association  –  ISSN 2281-4515

 

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