Plan de negocios

Business Plan

Office of Science and Technology
Organization of American States July 2001

Contents:
Executive summary ...............................................................................1 Introduction ...........................................................................................5 Mission..................................................................................................7 Objectives ..............................................................................................7 Mandates..............................................................................................10 Areas of Action and Future Activities.................................................11 Policy and Strategy Formulation..............................................11 Information Technology and Connectivity...............................12 Technological Services: Metrology, Standards, Accreditation and Quality....................................................13 Biotechnology and Food Technologies ....................................14 Clean Technologies and Renewable Energy.............................14 Cooperation with IACD, other OAS Units and otherInstitutions ...........................................................16 Situation and Resources ......................................................................18

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Executive Summary
Cognizant of the far-reaching commitment assumed by the Organization of American States (OAS) with regard to the different mandates and recommendations issued by the Heads of State and Government ofthe Americas and their respective governing bodies, as well as the proposal to restructure and modernize the OAS, as announced at the General Assembly in Costa Rica (2001), the Office of Science and Technology (OST) has formulated this Business Plan with the purpose, among others, of highlighting its performance and potential contribution in this process. It is imperative that the OAS, andspecifically each of its divisions, be equipped with the human and financial resources necessary to fulfill the commitments acquired by the Organization in the historic process currently under way in the Western Hemisphere. The OAS member States face a wide range of challenges that can be synthesized into the need to reduce poverty in the region and to raise the standards of living of its inhabitants.In the current process of globalization and the efforts to create the Free Trade Area of the Americas by January 1, 2005, the technology gap (to which the digital gap was recently added) and differences in economic development in the region are obstacles that must be overcome if the member States of the Organization are to attain suitable economic, commercial, political and social integrationand sustainability. The OST’s knowledge of national, regional and international institutions engaged in science and technology activities, its recognized experience in technical cooperation with the countries of the region, and the subject areas of its expertise, are key tools that put the Office in a position of comparative advantage for fulfilling the mandates and recommendations received by theOAS in the area of science and technology and, because of their cross-cutting nature, in many other disciplines as well. Accordingly, the OST’s mission to develop, foster and support activities that contribute to the advancement of science and technology in the hemisphere, in order to promote the countries’ economic, social, cultural, scientific and technological development, takes on renewedimportance, as reaffirmed in the mandates and recommendations issued by different bodies of the Summits of the Americas process.

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The principal mandates of the Office stem from the Inter-American Science and Technology Program (PRICYT), which is part of the Strategic Plan for Partnership for Development of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI). It takes into account the...