This year has been the gateway to innovation in many countries. With the arrival of the health emergency due to COVID-19, many sectors have been forced to innovate or face bankruptcy. Now, according to the recently published 2020 Global Innovation Index (GII), the world’s most innovative countries were Switzerland, Sweden, and the United States.
No country in Latin America managed to reach the top 50, but that does not mean that there is no innovation on the continent. Chile managed to be number 54, followed by Mexico (55) and Costa Rica (56). It is these three countries that are leading the region’s technological advances, especially in the financial sector.
Among the list are also Brazil (62) and Colombia (68), which, despite not being at the top of the list, has also been taken into account due to their marked interest in new technologies. On the other hand, the Pandemic has been seen as a factor that has reduced financing for innovation, since not all governments give priority to the technological field.
Apart from this, Costa Rica stood out for having several public programs to stimulate innovation in areas such as clean energy, the bioeconomy, and cybersecurity. Chile, in turn, has maintained stable government support for technology, while Mexico has stood out for the sophistication of its market, its recurring presence in digital areas, and its infrastructure.
Added to all this, of course, is the presence of developing Fintech regulations and numerous projects related to blockchain and cryptocurrencies. These include the Acciona energy initiative in Chile.
Crypto-technology making headway in the region
The interest of some Latin American countries in joining the new technologies is already known worldwide. Colombia, for example, has already been recognized for the sophistication of its companies and the government’s interest in implementing technologies such as blockchain and crypto assets in the country, making their use simple and frequent for citizens, and supporting academic projects to everyone interested.
Similarly, it was recently known that Chile is renewing its trade agreement with South Korea, to optimize its economy through digital products such as blockchain. This can give a great technological opportunity to the Latin country, as it is well known that South Korea is a faithful supporter of digital currencies and blockchain technology.
For its part, Mexico is preparing to renew its well-known Fintech law to achieve better compliance, especially by the crypto-companies that make life in the country. These include Bitso, Tauros, and Koibanx.
We can say that Pandemic has strongly affected various financial sectors globally. Despite this, the spread of financial innovation does not stop, and Latin America expresses, even between slow steps, that it will not stop in its development.
