The Minister of Productive Development, Matías Kulfas, and the Secretary of Strategic Affairs, Gustavo Beliz, agreed this Wednesday on the need to deepen productive development through the knowledge industry to adapt to the requirements of the 4.0 economy.
Both officials participated this Wednesday in the launch of the RUTA X project, a tool designed by the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) that aims to advance towards innovation and Argentine productive evolution.
Kulfas focused on the budget for SMEs that present development projects linked to technology 4.0.
“We have an estimated budget of $8,000 million in execution to allocate to a total of 12,500 SMEs that are committed to innovation and new technologies,” Kulfas said at the opening of the event that took place at the UIA.
The official highlighted the need to work for an industry that “advances the 4.0 challenges and digitization.”
“There are many SMEs that have to take an important leap and we must accompany them so that they become a mainstay for the productive sector”, he explained.
The concept of Industry 4.0 refers to a new way of producing by adopting 4.0 technologiesthat is, solutions focused on interconnectivity, automation and real-time data.
This transformation not only covers the production of goods and/or services of your company, but also the entire value chain, given that it reconfigures both the production processes and product services, as well as business management, customer and supplier relationships. and, in a broader sense, business models.
Kulfas warned that following this new path implies a “multidisciplinary and systemic approach with integral changes”, he stressed the importance of deepening the work in different axes, such as “institutional articulation and the approach that involves different areas of the economy of the knowledge”.
In this line, he highlighted the “graduality” to implement the projects, which in his opinion requires “time and learning”, as well as “the changes that are needed in organizational matters and business culture that will lead to new business models” .
Regarding the planned investment during his administration, he pointed out that with the financing of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for “US$ 50 million, projects for 4.0 will be financed.”
He also recalled that it is aimed at a “national network of 4.0 through 43 technology centers throughout the country.”
For its part, Beliz assured that innovation not only represents the incorporation of technological equipment to the world of production, but also adds an essential human component for the future of society.
“Innovation is not only incorporating technological equipment, but must have an essential human component, related to the cooperative,” said Beliz.
As an example, he urged to follow the concepts of the book Mission Economy, whose author, the economist Mariana Mazzucato, suggests the need “not to claim so many subsidies but to generate alliances for a 4.0 economy network.”
“From the Economic and Social Council we launched a call in three very important aspects: the federal network of experts 4.0, the consolidation of the base of the pyramid through Argentina Program and the selection of observatories of the future of work so that they closely follow production processes,” he said.
Another point highlighted by Beliz was the “training of 5,000 union leaders in everything related to artificial intelligence.”
“Argentina needs a technological social pact and these leaders will be able to develop a fruitful dialogue with the Federal Network of Experts,” concluded Beliz.
For his part, the president of the UIA, Daniel Funes de Rioja, in the presentation of the meeting made it clear that “the digital transformation of SMEs in Argentina is a central issue” for the entity.
“Argentina must and can insert itself into global value chains, with competitiveness as the north,” added the head of the UIA.
RUTA X is a comprehensive ecosystem designed by the UIA that allows companies to innovate and incorporate 4.0 technologies into their production processes.
The implementation of RUTA X is in charge of the manager of services to members and of RUTA X of the UIA, Laura Segura, with the collaboration of the specialist in productive development, Sergio Drucaroff.
