Closed reception for high-level authorities from LAC Productivity Ministerial and Education Ministerial. The event hours are in Brazilian time from18h00 – 20h00 BSB.

Más allá del enorme impacto humano y sanitario del COVID-19, la pandemia ha golpeado el núcleo de las regiones centrales de las cadenas de valor mundiales, como China y el Sudeste Asiático, Europa y Estados Unidos, con importantes consecuencias económicas. Todavía es pronto para evaluar el impacto total de la crisis a largo plazo, sin duda, las economías mejor integradas y más diversificadas tendrán mayor capacidad de adaptación e integración a las cadenas de valor regionales y globales. El comercio internacional ha sido un poderoso motor de crecimiento y mejora de los niveles de vida de los países. Sin embargo, la región de América Latina y el Caribe no ha cosechado hasta ahora todos los beneficios que puede ofrecer la integración en la economía mundial.

Além do enorme impacto humano e sanitário da COVID-19, a pandemia atingiu as regiões centrais das cadeias de valor globais, incluindo a China e o sudeste asiático, a Europa e os EUA, com grandes conseqüências econômicas. A guerra na Ucrânia perturbou ainda mais as cadeias de valor em setores-chave e está reconfigurando os padrões de comércio. Ainda é cedo para avaliar o impacto total desses dois grandes eventos no longo prazo, mas é certo que economias mais integradas e mais diversificadas terão maior capacidade de adaptação e integração nas cadeias de valor regionais e globais. O comércio internacional tem sido um poderoso motor de crescimento e melhoria dos padrões de vida em todos os países. No entanto, a região da América Latina e do Caribe ainda não colheu plenamente os benefícios que a integração na economia mundial pode oferecer.

Beyond the huge human and health impact of COVID-19, the pandemic has struck at the core of global value chains hub regions, including China and Southeast Asia, Europe and the US, with major economic consequences. The war in Ukraine has further disrupted global value chains in key sectors and is reconfiguring trade patterns. It is still early to evaluate the full impact of these two major events in the long run, but it is certain that better integrated and more diversified economies will have greater capacity to adapt and integrate into regional and global value chains. International trade has been a powerful engine of growth and improvement in living standards across countries. Nonetheless, the Latin American and Caribbean region has so far not fully reaped the benefits that integrating into the world economy can offer.

La disminución prevista de la población laboral hará que la productividad sea un motor aún más importante para el crecimiento económico. Las políticas de educación y formación se convertirán en la clave para garantizar que las personas adquieran las competencias adecuadas para contribuir a la sociedad. Los principales retos son hacer que las instituciones educativas respondan mejor a las nuevas necesidades del mercado laboral y ofrecer más oportunidades de perfeccionamiento y recualificación a los trabajadores. Sin embargo, las políticas de desarrollo de competencias sólo lograrán los aumentos de productividad deseados si van acompañadas de acciones simultáneas para impulsar el uso efectivo de las competencias. La utilización efectiva de las competencias en los lugares de trabajo mediante la aplicación de prácticas organizativas y de gestión innovadoras se basa en los beneficios de la participación laboral y contribuye a mejorar la innovación empresarial, la satisfacción y el rendimiento laboral de los empleados y la productividad. En esta sesión se debatirán los retos y las oportunidades para desarrollar y utilizar eficazmente las competencias en América Latina y el Caribe, así como las políticas para facilitar la adopción de prácticas innovadoras en el lugar de trabajo.

Com base na última edição das Perspectivas Econômicas da OCDE para a América Latina, esta sessão se concentrará nas ações políticas para melhorar os mecanismos de proteção social e aumentar a inclusão social, promover a integração regional e fortalecer as estratégias industriais, e repensar o contrato social para restaurar a confiança e capacitar os cidadãos em todas as etapas do processo de elaboração de políticas. Além disso, destacará a necessidade de promover estruturas macroeconômicas sustentáveis e adaptadas para financiar a recuperação, bem como a importância de renovar a cooperação internacional para apoiar estas ações políticas no atual contexto global desafiador.

Building on the last edition of the annual OECD Latin American Economic Outlook, this session will focus on the policy actions to improve social protection mechanisms and increase social inclusion, foster regional integration and strengthen industrial strategies, and rethink the social contract to restore trust and empower citizens at all stages of the policy-making process. Moreover, it will highlight the need to promote sustainable and adapted macro-economic frameworks to finance the recovery, as well as the importance of renewing international co-operation to support these policy actions in the current challenging global context.

Structural transformation caused by international trade, or trade reforms that open up sectors to foreign competition, are desirable for the aggregate economy as they strengthen productivity and reduce misallocations, which are often essential explanations for stagnant productivity growth or competitiveness challenges. At the same time, such transformations move jobs across firms, sectors and regions, creating challenges for workers. In this context, well-designed policy packages can go a long way to support workers in the transition and help them grasp new opportunities. This session will overview the existing literature on trade adaptation policies outlining some guiding principles that can help to shape the design of such policies, and discussing and sharing the lessons learnt from past experiences. Policies should provide active support to workers in the form of smart and well-designed policy packages, without standing in the way of the necessary adjustments. Designing these policies can be challenging, but lessons from international experience can help in their design.

OECD data documents that the skills and the diversity of the workforce and of managers – the human side of businesses – account on average for about one third of the labour productivity gap between firms at the productivity “frontier” (the top 10% within each detailed industry) and medium performers at the 40-60 percentile of the productivity distribution. The composition of skills, especially the share of high skills, varies the most along the productivity distribution, but low and medium skilled employees make up a substantial share of the workforce even at the frontier. Taking into consideration the LAC context, with high levels of informality, this session will discuss public policies that can facilitate the catch-up of firms below the frontier through skills and diversity, covering a wide range of areas exerting their influence through the supply, upgrading and the matching across firms (the SUM) of skills and other human factors.

The projected decline in the working-age population will make productivity an even more important driver of economic growth. Education and training policies will become key to ensuring that people acquire the right skills to contribute to societies. Key challenges include making education institutions more responsive to emerging labour market needs and providing more up-skilling and re-skilling opportunities for workers. However, skills development policies will only achieve desired productivity gains if they are accompanied by simultaneous actions to boost the effective use of skills. Putting skills to effective use in workplaces through the implementation of innovative organisational and management practices builds on labour participation benefits and helps improve business innovation, employee job satisfaction and performance, and productivity. This session will discuss the challenges and opportunities to develop and put skills to effective use in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the policies to facilitate the adoption of innovative workplace practices.

Telework has been essential for many firms and workers to maintain production during the COVID crisis, and can boost productivity also during normal times. However, the ability to effectively use digital tools for remote work depends crucially on worker’s digital skills, which vary not only with worker’s education levels, but also by gender and age. Reaping the benefits that remote work can offer thus critically hinges on upgrading the human capital of workers, and especially of those groups who lag behind. On the firm side, large businesses tend to use digital technologies more than smaller ones. Given the importance of SMEs for Latin American economies, digital upgrading of smaller businesses thus has the potential to enhance the adoption of digital tools, including telework, and prepare the business sector for the digital transition.

Innovative start-ups can play a major role in addressing the challenges brought about by the green and digital transitions, by developing radically new technologies and introducing new low-carbon products and services. Recent OECD work suggests that green start-ups may also be more innovative and have a higher growth potential than other start-ups. Since start-ups working on green technologies may develop goods or services for markets that may not yet exist, there is room for governments to help develop sustainable business models that integrate social and/or environmental value creation with business activities. Understanding the role that policies can play to encourage the scale-up of green and digital start-ups is an important tool for countries to navigate these major transitions.

The Steering Group Meeting is limited to invited member country delegations and international organisations. For more information please contact LACRegionalProgramme@oecd.org