The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved an 8 million dollar loan for Uruguay, which will be used to develop the digital skills of workers related to new technologies in the knowledge-intensive goods and services sectors.
The scheme hopes to achieve the “internationalisation” of Uruguayan companies.
It also aims to “increase the supply of human capital with advanced digital skills” needed to work in the sectors, and to “strengthen the internationalization capabilities” of companies operating in these sectors or integrating knowledge-intensive goods and services in the sectors theirs. processes and products.
The program will be run by the Technological University of Uruguay (UTEC), which aims to provide training that will be tailored to the specific needs of different regions within the country. More than 400 UTEC students are expected to benefit from the training, while around 45 scholarships will be offered to women, teachers and residents of designated regions.
Additionally, 150 companies which are located in export-oriented regions or are exploring the internationalization of their products or services will benefit from the scheme, while 90 companies will “gain access to opportunities for internationalization and capital inclusion qualified human”.
The scheme will also promote partnerships with international academic institutions to develop further education programmes, in addition to teacher training courses in the areas of technology, climate change, gender and diversity.
The loan application to the IDB, submitted earlier this month under the title “Uruguay Global II: Promoting Advanced Digital Skills for Internationalization,” outlines the reasons why Uruguay would benefit from the financing.
Among the reasons were that, while Uruguay’s economic and political stability offers an attractive investment climate, the country still “lags behind” in terms of integration into global markets, especially compared to countries with similar levels of development to Uruguay’s. The application states that Uruguay’s integration into global markets is essential if it is to “foster sustainable growth”, given that the country has a small domestic market.
In addition, the application recognizes the global importance of the knowledge-intensive goods and services sector, which has grown over the past decade. Uruguay has “succeeded in growing and positioning itself in this sector”, with the sector employing nearly 45,000 people in the country in 2023 (representing 3.6% of formal jobs), and exports of knowledge-intensive goods and services have doubled between 2012 and 2023.
Despite this, the document says Uruguay has a “limited” supply of human capital skilled in knowledge-intensive goods and services: a problem exacerbated by the country’s slow demographic growth, the country’s small scale and the scale of lower graduation. from high school (approximately 49%).
Furthermore, there is a large disparity between the number of digitally skilled workers in the capital Montevideo, which is home to 85% of the country’s ICT-competent workers, and regions outside the capital. In 2023, there were 2.63 jobs for every student starting ICT training outside Montevideo.
The main objective of the program is described in the application as “to promote Uruguay’s integration into global markets by developing skills for new technologies in knowledge-intensive goods and services sectors”.
The loan has an amortization period of 24.5 years, a grace period of six years and its interest will be based on the Assured Overnight Funding Rate (SOFR).
