- Initiative proposes an economy based on knowledge, green and resilient, decarbonized and competitive.
- It is a framework to integrate public and private proposals, align investments, develop and enhance incentives, articulating the productive and the environmental.
- From an innovation, inclusion and sustainability perspective, the strategy seeks to position the country in the face of the challenges that the world economy faces due to COVID-19.
- It is a joint effort of MINAE, MAG and MEIC, led by MICITT.
San José, Friday, August 7, 2020. Productive systems face a fourfold challenge in the face of a global economic contraction exacerbated by COVID 19: produce more efficiently or reinvent themselves, maintain value chains that support jobs and livelihoods, while ensuring the sustainable use and rehabilitation of nature facing climate change.
In this context and with the objective of establishing a Costa Rica as an economy based on knowledge, with sustainable production of high added value in all its regions and the fair and equitable use of its biodiversity, the Government of the Republic announced this Friday the National Bioeconomy Strategy.
It is an effort of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT), as the leader of the initiative. The formulation process had the support of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) for its development, with the financial support of the cooperation program with the Federal Republic of Germany (CEPAL-BMZ / GIZ Program) and the contribution from various sectors and experts from the areas of science and technology, both public and private.
The National Bioeconomy Strategy is a framework for integrating public and private proposals, aligning incentives and public investments, and guiding private initiative, articulating various areas related to production and the environment.
The purpose is to make the bioeconomy one of the pillars of the productive transformation of Costa Rica, by promoting innovation, value addition, diversification and sophistication of its economy, applying the principles of the circular bioeconomy and seeking the decarbonization of production and consumption processes.
“The bioeconomy represents a great opportunity to promote regional development, since it serves as a complement to existing productive activities, diversifying them, promoting added value and making them more sustainable, by making responsible use of natural resources and even locally generated waste” , explained the Minister of Science, Technology and Telecommunications, Paola Vega Castillo.
The President of the Republic, Carlos Alvarado, affirmed that “the strategy seeks to build a Costa Rica with sustainable production of high added value, based on the fair and equitable use of its biodiversity, increase biotechnological efforts, which allows a productive transformation, based on in knowledge ”.
The president recalled that the promotion of the bioeconomy and the search for best practices in this matter, was part of the agenda during his trip to Germany in May 2019, where he met with the German Federal Chancellor, Angela Merkel. In addition, President Alvarado thanked Germany for deciding cooperation in building this strategy.
“In a context of pandemic as a country, it challenges us to accelerate the step towards the bioeconomy that will allow us to influence the development of our regions and their productivity,” the president stressed.
The National Bioeconomy Strategy is based on global policy frameworks adopted by the country: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention to Combat Desertification and the instruments of national policy that implement this Framework.
It has a 10-year vision and is planned to be implemented in three phases: impulse (2020-2022); scaling (2022-2026) and consolidation (2026-2030). Through these three phases, the use of Costa Rica’s biological wealth and capabilities in the scientific field will be enhanced, based on knowledge and the sustainable use of the country’s biological assets.
In this Friday’s activity, a MICITT-UNDP Agreement of Understanding was signed, with the aim of promoting the mobilization of technical and financial resources to encourage the development of bio-businesses within the framework of the National Bioeconomy Strategy and the Finance Initiative for the Biodiversity (BIOFIN).
ational BioEconomy Strategy, MICITT, Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications, August 7, 2020. Photo: Roberto Carlos Sánchez @rosanchezphoto
Costa Rica reaffirms environmental leadership
- “Costa Rica demonstrates, once again, its global leadership in the forefront of economic and commercial opportunities from an innovation, inclusion and sustainability perspective that will also translate into economic reactivation.” José Vicente Troya Rodríguez, resident representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Costa Rica.
- “As a leading country in terms of environmental sustainability, we have earned the privilege of putting environmental issues at the center of development. Many countries take Costa Rica as a reference, because we have shown that the protection of nature is not a brake on development and, on the contrary, has generated a series of important economic opportunities. We have been a decade ahead of many countries on issues of conservation and national parks due to historical conditions of social development and better governance ”. Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, Minister of MINAE.
- “From the agricultural sector, we see this strategy as an option to achieve a greater development of agricultural, livestock, fishing and aquaculture activities in a sustainable way. We want to promote the addition of value, the use of biomass for energy production and the diversification that makes the producers more competitive, since greater opportunities are generated for them to access various markets with new products and services and new sources are created. of equitable economic and social growth ”, Renato Alvarado, MAG minister.
- “It is a reference framework to complement the 2030 National Entrepreneurship Policy, which also constitutes a guiding framework to promote a sustainable economic recovery, which lays solid foundations for the transformations that are needed in a time like the one we live in. It involves challenges of coordinating dialogue and agreement with the private sector, aligning incentives, regulating and simplifying procedures. From the MEIC, we are committed to assuming these challenges so that the business park has opportunities for innovation, new ventures, strengthening value chains, public purchases and information for consumers ”. Victoria Hernández, Minister of Economy, Industry and Commerce.
- “Agroecological systems, agroindustry, bioprospecting, and agricultural and medical biotechnology are areas in which Costa Rica has capacities to enhance as part of its National Bioeconomy Strategy; These are areas in which two relevant factors are combined in the case of Costa Rica: on the one hand, the biological wealth of the country; and on the other, recognized capacities in the fields of biological and life sciences ”. Mario Cimoli, Deputy Executive Secretary of ECLAC.
