Jalisco’s Secretary of Innovation, Science and Technology has partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create a Latin American hub for the prestigious university and kindle foreign and domestic investment for groundbreaking companies.
As part of the partnership, the Cambridge, Mass., university has formed the MIT Enterprise Forum México and—possibly as soon as October—will open representative offices in Guadalajara. From there, MIT plans to expand its activities throughout Mexico and Latin America.
At the announcement of the partnership, Jalisco’s Innovation Secretary, Jaime Reyes Robles, said it’s time for the region to transform from a manufacturing-base and encourage more high-value, entrepreneurial industries.
“This is the beginning of a great program, really, MIT coming to settle here in Guadalajara with us,” Reyes said. “This is great news for economic growth, that they’re coming to be established as part of the innovation center.”
Reyes — whose position was created by Governor Aristóteles Sandoval — spoke about the agreement at Guadalajara’s Software Center, a high-tech office space filled with software developers, web designers and multimedia companies near the Plaza del Sol shopping center.
Educational exchange
As part of the arrangement MIT will send students to Guadalajara. Those students won’t just study at schools here, they’ll work with local companies to increase innovation. In turn, students in Guadalajara will have opportunities with companies in Boston that have links to MIT.
The plan is to create a more entrepreneurial ecosystem in Guadalajara, as most economic growth is based on productivity from technological innovation, said Ricardo Godínez, a co-founder of the MIT Enterprise Forum.
A big part of building such an ecosystem involves finding cash from venture capitalists to get innovative companies off the ground. In that respect, MIT—which is already a leader in entrepreneurship and emerging technologies—can provide much needed assistance when it comes to promoting foreign and domestic investment.
Guadalajara, and Mexico, has the capacity to be a center of innovation, Godínez said.
Margarita Solis Hernández, the general director of the Jalisco Institute of Information Technology, a non-profit organization that manages Guadalajara’s Software Center, said the agreement between MIT and government officials here represents a crucial development in connecting the academic, public and private sectors. That enables Guadalajara to have skilled workers, government support and associations with companies.
“It’s really very important to have links with an organization like MIT,” she said.