Mathieu Lacoste of CDKN Colombia reports from Colombia's Annual Forum on Competitiveness 2016.

Simon Maxwell, Executive Chairman of CDKN, was the keynote speaker at the Annual Forum on Competitiveness that took place in Bogotá, Colombia on 9th November 2016. He spoke on how the private sector could contribute to delivering climate compatible development in Colombia while enhancing its future competitiveness.

Simon addressed important issues and challenges that the private sector will have to face in order to boost future business and to raise the private sector’s competitiveness:

• First, there are challenges related to the new industrial and economic revolution that is taking place due to climate change. This implies that businesses must adapt and transform, innovate to go beyond business-as-usual and turn climate change into a new source of private competitiveness.

• Second, there will be both winners and losers, a disruption but also creation of new markets, the destruction and surge of new sectors. The winners and more competitive companies will be those who will have made early investments in innovation.

• Third, public policy-makers have a role in creating the right environment to help the private sector’s transition towards this new economy, which implies bolstering the enabling conditions such as institutional and legal frameworks, major public-private collaboration, higher investments in research and development (R&D), among others.

This conference contributed to raise awareness around the new opportunities for businesses of a new climate economy and green growth and will also help CDKN Colombia to keep engaging the private sector of Colombia on such strategic agendas, as part of the “Public-Private Collaboration” Project led by CDKN, the Private Council for Competitiveness, the National Planning Department and Green Growth Mission.

“Colaboración pública-privada para el crecimiento verde” was supported by CDKN in partnership with Consejo Privado de Competitividad de Colombia, Departamento Nacional de Planeación and Misión de Crecimiento Verde de Colombia.