The experience of the innovation technology centres in Peru 

INSME: Tell us a bit about CITEs’ history. How did the network start? How long has it been operating? How did it grow?

Mrs. Carazo: It all started in 1994, when I was manager of training and technical assistance within a special project of the European Union for small and micro-enterprises on behalf of the Minister of Industry in Peru. We found that there wasn’t a good offer in technological support in our country and the universities are not well prepared to assist small enterprises in this regard. The NGOs working with small enterprises mainly deal with management and credit issues, but not with technology. Instead SMEs not only need training and credit services, but also technological support, they need laboratories where to make tests and experimentation.

At that time we had another project with Spain, with the AECI [Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional, Spanish Agency for International Cooperation] and also, through a Peruvian enterprise that went to Valencia, we got to know what another Spanish institution, INESCOP [Instituto Tecnológico del Calzado y Conexas, Technological Institute for Footwear and Related Industries] was doing with regards to technological support to SMEs. So we said: we need something like that in Peru. And with the help of INESCOP we set up the first Technological Innovation Centre, CITEccal, and this has to do with shoes and leather. With the help of Spain, we also set a Centre for furniture and wood, CITEMadera, and one for pisco [the most widely consumed spirit in Peru. It's a brandy or "aguardiente" distilled from the white muscat grapes grown in this country. Pisco is also the name of the province of Peru where this liquor was first produced and exported].

INSME: And how many CITEs are there today?

Mrs. Carazo: Today we have 12 innovation centres in manufacturing and the agro-industry sector. 3 of them are public and the other 9 are private or mixed (they include universities, chambers of commerce, business associations, NGOs, etc). And we also have 10 centres in the artisan and tourism sectors.

So centres began with the help of cooperation but now they are well established in Peru. 3 of the political parties in their programs talk about the CITEs (they say that they are good instruments). The National Council for Competitiveness considers the CITEs as a tool for innovation for small enterprises. Also in the law of CONCYTEC [Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, National Council for Science and Technology] they talk about CITEs. We have a law about the CITEs and how to create them.

INSME: So it has been a very successful experiment, hasn’t it?

Mrs. Carazo: Well, we have limited finances available. As far as the 3 public centres are concerned, 50% of their revenue comes from services offered to enterprises. But they also need a comparable amount of resources to invest in R&D, new instruments, laboratories and quality systems. The problem is that in Peru there are no fondos concursables (grant funds). We are going to begin this year with a special fund of 36 million $ with IDB cooperation.

The private centres do what they can and sometimes they can’t offer special services because they do not have money for that. For examples laboratories: they don’t have the possibility to provide SMEs with some services because those kinds of services need special projects. Now we have funds from the World Bank and we are helping some of the private CITEs to to acquire accreditation for their laboratories.

INSME: And what about the CITEs network as such? Do you have plans for the network?

Mrs. Carazo: Yes, of course. We have a small project for the network. The CITEs make up a network which is based in the Ministry of Production of Peru. This network is in a transition phase now, from the network without any participation in the structure of the ministry to a technical office for innovation and technology transfer to push this project.

INSME: Are there milestones or remarkable achievements in CITEs’ life worth mentioning?

Mrs. Carazo: Yes. For example in Pisco we have 22 new enterprises, new bodegas. We are improving their productivity and profitability. How? By controlling parasites and insects, by using new fertilizers, etc.. We are now beginning a very special research project aimed at improving the quality of grapes so that producers can increase their productivity.

In Pisco we have about 600 small enterprises and they are doing well now. Most of them have obtained denominación de origen for their product. This is a remarkable result. 

INSME: CITEs are not the only instruments being part of the national innovation plan of Peru. In your presentation you mentioned the ProTechnology programmes, the science and competitiveness fund.
Could you explain us how CITEs position themselves among these instruments?

Mrs. Carazo: Yes of course CITEs are not the only instruments. Sometimes we don’t have enough resources to set up a CITE (you need a building, you need personnel and continuous services). If you cannot do that, what can you do? In some cases you can help small enterprises just by sending them people who know how to manage and by training and offering SMEs technical assistance or providing laboratories services (not in the same place where the enterprise is located, but somewhere else). We can do things by acting like a CITE. This is a virtual CITE. We call it a ProTechnology programme. This kind of services can be provided by a CITE or by some other organisation if we don’t have a CITE for that sector. For example we don’t have a CITE now for the milk sector. But we know people with expertise in this field - people from universities, from enterprises or from another country - for instance, knowledge on how to produce cheese from goat's milk for instance.

INSME: So your support is flexible, calibrated on different measures, from the more integrated to the more liberal, isn’t it?

Mrs. Carazo: Peru is a big country, not so big as Brazil, but big anyway. And there are different places with different realities. In general in the coast there are more big enterprises and high technology. They don’t need special technological advise. But in some other parts of Peru the situation is different. Perhaps if we are working with the people that produce algarrobina (something like honey) it doesn’t change the exports of Peru, but it changes the condition of that area. The concept is not exactly the same as the industrial districts (as in Italy for instance), there is an artisan way of doing things. But we help them to do it well and with quality.

INSME: How well is the Peruvian innovation system performing compared to other Latin American countries?

Mrs. Carazo: Mr. Yutronic, who was a speaker at the INSME International Conference 2006, worked with a Canadian expert on this and they prepared a paper saying that there is no Innovation System in Peru. They considered that the CITEs are a good link between the enterprises and the investors, between the enterprises and the technological centres. The approach is not of the kind “that university is doing this. Who wants it?”. No. The approach is “we have this need. Who can help?”. It is a demand driven approach.

For example, we put special emphasis on the concursable funds (funds for co-financing science technology and innovation) we put special emphasis, we give more money, more co-financing (80% of co-financing) if there is not only one enterprise but if there is more than one enterprise and they have alliances with technological centres.

I want to put a special emphasis on the importance of alliances because there is a widespread culture against it. In university for instance it can happen that the faculty of mechanics doesn’t speak or has problems in working with the faculty of electronics. In the Innovation Program of the National Council for Competitiveness (CCN) there are 3 points for innovation. The first one is to improve culture for innovation (the enterprises that are doing innovation have to show it and have to show they have profitability). The second is how to improve demand: special funds, concursos, premios and fiscal incentives. And the third one has to do with the supply for innovation, technological services, for instance CITEs. If the culture doesn’t improve, SMEs are not going to ask for our services, and if they do not ask for our services, we are not going to have enough money to support the system and offer improved services, and they will have more difficulties in innovating.

INSME: During the First Meeting of Ministers and High Authorities of Science and Technology, held in Lima in 2004, the Ministers had adopted an Action Plan (call Declaration of Lima) that recognised the importance of science and technology to promote economic and social development and defined specific policy proposals.
What has been done in these years?

Mrs. Carazo: That meeting was the last of a series of meetings organised by OEA [Organización de los Estados Americanos - Organization of American Countries]. As far as Peru is concerned, the Minister of  Economy of Peru said that science and technology is not a priority for Peru. The priority is poverty. But you have to see this issue from a different point of view. In order to fight poverty we need knowledge. If you give people the possibility to access knowledge, you can do business with them and they are not going to be poor anymore. If you say that poverty is the priority and you give them only food and clothes, you can’t change people’s condition.
Actually the government agreed to sign for having 1% of the GNP in R&D investment. We have ten times less. So the problem is not to sign the plan but to make concrete steps towards that goal.

INSME: What do you think about the project, proposed by some policy makers, to build a common Research Area in South America?

Mrs. Carazo: I think that’s fundamental. I think that commercial treaties between countries are important. But if we don’t have an innovation programme at regional level, like Europeans have, it will be very difficult to compete.

For example, I was recently in Argentina talking about alpacas [sheep-like animals, larger than sheep in size and with a longer neck. Alpacas are valued for their fiber, of which blankets and ponchos are made in South America, sweaters, blankets, socks and coats in other parts of the world]. 80% of alpacas are in Peru. But the fiber is getting strong. That’s no good. To improve the quality we need genetic research. But we have to do things together. Perhaps Chile or Argentina know more than Peru about genetics, but Peru works with alpacas. Now the president of the Peruvian society of alpacas is in Argentina with the shepherds showing what they are doing with their sheep, because perhaps we can do something similar with the alpacas: how to identify quality, technical norms, how to prepare an information project for shepherds, what kind of food the animals need, etc.

If we do not interchange information, I think it will be very difficult to compete.

Perhaps the common research area is not appropriate for everything. But for instance for new materials (metallics, ceramics, polymers), biotechnology (Amazonian biotechnology for us is a key point, there are a lot of things that the Amazonian system can give us for our health).

Another example: potatoes. You know that potatoes are from Peru. We are involved in an international study on the genetics of potatoes. It has to be an international study because we need to give potatoes to everybody because there is hunger in the world. So we need an international system for research in some cases and of course in Latin America.

INSME: You have been a participant at the INSME International Conference 2006. What's the contribution of this conference to inspiring your future action-taking? What have you learnt from this experience with INSME?

Mrs. Carazo: As I’ve told you, we need an innovation system in Peru. So the exchange of experiences, including the polemic ones, is very useful.

Perhaps we need fewer conferences and more spaces for interchanges, because the objective of this kind of meetings may be projects, common projects and in general we do not have time for projects.

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