This document is the result of the “Competitiveness Poles” Project, promoted by the EU-LAC Foundation and the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), whose objective is focused on fostering collaboration between clusters and territories of the European Union (EU) and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).
Although LAC countries have not implemented significant institutional initiatives to promote inter-cluster cooperation, it is possible to observe over the last few years that a number of diverse agreements of this type have been achieved. Many of these experiences have been promoted on the initiative of the same clusters and, in some cases, these initiatives emerged under the direct auspices of more or less structured public policies.
EU-LAC cooperation has been incorporating territorial development and cooperation between regions as a central theme, and there are several support programmes at that level. For its part, inter-cluster cooperation is growing within the EU and has important incentives for internationalisation. There is undoubtedly scope to think and design more effective mechanisms to promote inter-cluster cooperation between the EU and LAC.