Comment 
Share 
In Figures
5 times
In 1974, Korean and LAC Research and Development (R&D) investment and GDP per capita were roughly equal. By 2007, Korean investment in R&D was approximately five times the R&D levels in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC); and Korean GDP per capita had grown to be more than double than in LAC.
15%
An in-house study on the long-run dynamic effects of a matching-grant program managed by the Colombian innovation agency COLCIENCIAS provides evidence that, over the period 1995-2007 COLCIENCIAS funding had an average impact on labor productivity of around 15%. These effects become more significant three to five years after the firms started being treated.
142 years
142 years is the amount of time it will take Latin America and the Caribbean to ‘catch-up’ with the OECD in terms of the penetration of computers relative to the population; assuming business as usual (or a steady adoption rate), and that levels of penetration in the OECD have reached a saturation point and will not continue to grow.
67 days
The average number of days that it takes to start a business in Latin America and the Caribbean is 67. Starting a business in OECD countries only takes 13 days, on average. In Latin America and the Caribbean the number of procedures required for opening a business are nearly double the number required in the OECD.
150,000
The number of votes we received in the “Problem Competition”, made up through a crowd-sourcing site that allowed participants to post and present issues that could then be voted on by other users. The higher number of votes suggests higher priority. The initiative “A World of Solutions: Innovations for People with Disabilities” is focused on giving a voice to people with disabilities, a vulnerable group that is among the region’s most excluded in lacking access to education and employment.
