Public enterprises as key players in the innovation system

Are public enterprises the engine of innovation or are they the repositories of inefficiency and backwardness? It is only with an open and informed debate that we can have an answer that allows us to transform them into a useful and modern tool.

If we remain in the prejudices, the references to public companies are limited to a single dimension: the expenditure they imply for the State coffers and, therefore, are associated with fiscal imbalances. Or with the distrust that some sow in the management of these companies. They doubt the effectiveness of their decisions because business parameters are assumed to be the only criteria that govern the performance of large private companies, as if the role of the two organizations were similar.

Faced with this, it is necessary to claim and build another repository. Development needs public enterprises and public enterprises need to be examined and analyzed from broader perspectives. Thus, we can discover unique capabilities and important technological advances. Isn’t INVAP an excellent example of a public company that promotes technological development in Argentina? Or could we develop our own capabilities to take advantage of our natural resources without relying on YPF as a guide? What impetus can we expect from the exploitation of lithium or the development of hydrogen without having actors who participate in these sectors with clear and explicit objectives? Would we have more or less technical and commercial information to widen as much as possible the opportunities and advantages in favor of Argentine progress? Could we expand drinking water coverage without AySA? Will it be possible to solve environmental challenges only with private initiative or to cover infrastructure needs with the investment criteria that govern the field of commercial banking and the stock market frenzy?

It is the public companies, here and elsewhere in the world, which produce vaccines or which take advantage of advances in nuclear technology to generate new treatments, that is to say which cover certain segments neglected by the large laboratories in order to strengthen health systems. It is public companies that open up new paths to space or to new energies. These are the types of companies that provide the State with the necessary capacities to regulate and build its sovereignty in increasingly complex and strategic sectors such as computing, artificial intelligence and data storage. More than competition from private initiative, good public companies are a necessary complement to guarantee plural markets, diversified offers and symmetrical capacities.

None of this can be achieved without professionalism and efficiency. Sometimes, in order for public companies to fulfill their role, your investment decisions must be decoupled from falsified metrics to see immediate returnsor financial and adopt the development perspective as a guide. This objective does not relax the demands on the operating teams, but rather increases them. And when this is achieved, public enterprises are also synonymous with innovation, an area where science and production virtuously combine to develop new solutions or venture into new industries and technologies. It is a school for technicians and professionals which, in one way or another, supports technical education and the establishment of private companies.

What professional profiles can combine this technical suitability and this type of strategic view? There is no single answer, but there is a place to start building it: the Public university. It is therefore good news that the National University of Quilmes opens, in 2023, the first registration for its postgraduate degree in Department of Public Enterprises. From the R+D+i Agency we support this initiative because we understand that this training proposal is another way to promote science, technology and innovation. And, in addition, we have a new line of support for R&D projects that promote business initiatives with total or partial participation of the national state or provincial and municipal states.

Development is not a spontaneous process, it arises when a society adopts the political decision of transformation and accompanies it with knowledge and investment. In turn, science and technology need new players who transform disruptive ideas into better products, processes or solutions. With good SOEs, both conditions can be strengthened to have a development path with fewer restrictions and more opportunities.

Continue reading: