The U.S. Department of State, in partnership with the World Environment Center (WEC), announced twelve finalists of the Pathways to Prosperity Innovation Challenge, June 10. Two Chilean competitors are in the group: private sector engineering company Centro Tecnológico de Aseguramiento de la Calidad (CTAC), and Núcleo Biotecnología Curauma, at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso.
The Challenge was created to discover existing local, high-impact solutions that empower small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Latin America and the Caribbean to advance economic development and prosperity. The finalists will vie for one of four awards of up to USD 500,000 and technical support to scale up or replicate their initiatives in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Panama, or Peru.
All finalists will be invited to join WEC and the State Department at a three-day gathering at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to further refine their solutions for scaling across the region. The event will culminate on July 25, 2014 with a pitch day during which four winners will be determined from the pool of 12 finalists. A panel of international expert judges from the government and private sectors will select the winners http://challenge.wec.org/awards
About Pathways to Prosperity
Pathways to Prosperity in the Americas is a policy-level dialogue that links 16 Western Hemisphere governments and societies that collectively seek to empower small businesses, facilitate trade and regional competitiveness, build a modern and inclusive workforce, and encourage green, sustainable business practices. Pathways member countries currently include Belize, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and the United States. Brazil has observer status. The Inter-American Development Bank, the Organization of American States, and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean are strategic Pathways partners.
More information in http://http://www.pathways-caminos.org/
