Medellín (Colombia), Sep 9 (EFE) .- Colombia was recognized as a world leader in the orange economy during a summit of creative industries held on Monday in Medellin (northwest) and in which experts addressed issues such as the intellectual property, artificial intelligence, and new media.
The first Orange Economy Summit, organized by the Advanced Leadership Foundation (ALF) together with the Presidency and the Medellín Mayor’s Office, opened its discussions with the conviction that this sector “is not something of the future, it is a reality.”
“There is no doubt, we are facing a historic moment in this country. It’s the time of the creativity-based economy,” said the president of ALF, Juan Verde, during his speech.
He says Colombia is the only country in the world that, besides designing a policy to foster the creative economy, set it as a national strategy and priority.
“It is becoming a benchmark for the world in orange economy, a role model because it makes sense to bet on dynamic and competitive sectors of the future,” said the executive.
In that sense, he highlighted the Commune 13 of Medellín with practices such as the Graffitour, a tour which tells the transformation story of a vulnerable area through painting and music.
“It is an example of how the orange economy makes sense. Sending tourists to the favelas, to the communes, to poorer neighborhoods of the city with a cultural offer,” said Verde.
On the impact of the summit, which began with 1,200 attendees and 300 Colombian leaders to be trained, he said that his model is “unique in the world” because it will train experts “capable of changing the future of Colombia and the world.”
The director of the Agency for Cooperation and Investment of Medellín (ACI), Catalina Restrepo Carvajal, said that the sector is an opportunity for the development of the city, so the entity worked for it to be carried out in the capital of Antioquia.
“The orange economy is a gateway to the economic development of Medellin, an opportunity to create new international connections that will boost employment generation and quality of life from other perspectives of creative knowledge,” he added.
In turn, the Colombian Foreign Minister, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, said that the “economies of the future” will be based on knowledge, so research and innovation should be understood as “development instruments that contribute substantially to accelerate economic growth and decrease inequity. ”
He pointed out that in Colombia the activities related to the orange economy are equivalent to 3.4% of the GDP and said that the courage of these industries has allowed an economic recovery in the challenge of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Finally, and with the objective that the city continues to grow in that industry, the mayor of Medellín, Federico Gutiérrez, presented “Ruta Naranja”, a creative district that will seek to strengthen the ecosystem of art and culture in the city that will join the center of innovation and technology Ruta N. EFE
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