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| A smiling Rafael Correa greets with a robot in Incheon, South Korea (2010). Photo: www.terra.com.ec |
What is Yachay for the government?
With a frankness and simplicity that is almost strange in these times, Arturo Villavicencio, who, although he recognizes that there is very little information about Yachay, has analyzed this project, tells us: “The idea of Yachay is that by creating a university or high-tech research centers, we will be able to discover the hidden riches of our Amazon or our biodiversity and that we can transform it, commercialize it, in this way it will lead us to a post-extractivist economy. They are waiting for international companies to come to Yachay.”
One of the expectations of the Yachay project is profits from drug production, as there is talk of large pharmaceutical laboratories being set up there. However, Villavicencio warns that in the best case scenario, if a medicine is discovered, it could take ten to fifteen years for it to be profitable, and he also stresses that “we live in a world where the entire pharmaceutical business is cartelized.”
Regarding the technologies that Yachay is proposing to develop, the academic emphasizes that “there is a somewhat idyllic vision in all this, because it is believed that these technologies are going to be the solution to the problems facing humanity.” He refers to a quote from Yachay about nanotechnology that he describes as comical because he finds no connection between how nanotechnology is going to solve the problems of housing shortages, lack of drinking water, hunger.
“The development of nanotechnology could solve problems in the poorest countries of the world as important as diseases, hunger, lack of drinking water and lack of housing [sic]. It is aimed at microelectronics, computing, communications, military logistics [sic], human and animal health and the environment” (Yachay, 2013).Arturo Villavicencio believes that technology must be developed, but technology that responds to the needs of the country. He proposes that, instead of making a large investment in Yachay, 500 million dollars for this year, in a project that does not make sense, it would be better to strengthen the research centers of the Catholic University, the University of Loja, and the Polytechnic School of the Coast to work on specific problems of the country.
Several times President Correa asked him to take charge of the Yachay project. “I am interested in science, technology and society, above all; but the first question I had was whether the focus of this project could be changed. I always thought of a network system: to strengthen our universities, to interact with the government and with national and international companies. And they told me that there was no way, that this was the president’s idea.”
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| Dr. Arturo Villavicencio. Photo: El Comercio |
During his time at the National Council for the Evaluation and Accreditation of Higher Education and the Institute of Advanced National Studies, Villavicencio sought to open spaces for debate on these fundamental issues for the country, but he did not receive support. Perhaps for this reason, he insists, using all means at his disposal, on the need to promote these debates, share opinions and proposals, provide all available information and ask for it to be widely disseminated. [3]
Where do these “innovative” initiatives come from?
Arturo Villavicencio warns that the university project of the citizen revolution is moving towards academic capitalism. This is a model of universities that was born in the USA; this functional and useful vision of knowledge: the university of patents, of discoveries, of inventions with purely commercial ends.”
He points out that Yachay's promoters always use Silicon Valley, a technological-industrial complex in California, as an example; also Route 128, along which technological industries are located in Boston. Likewise, on the Yachay website, it refers to Stanford University and California University as an example to imitate.[4] and “the Incheon Free Economic Zone – IFEZ – of South Korea is the model for the construction and development of the scientific-technological hub in Urcuqui, Ibarra”[5]There are concrete steps linking Incheon with Yachay, as demonstrated by the fact that Koreans from IFEZ are in charge of developing the master plan for the “knowledge city.”
Given these models and the reality of Ecuador, what role would Yachay play in the technological field? “What I think is that this project is totally unviable. If it were to happen, what we would have is a kind of “technological maquila”; that is, an enclave isolated from the rest of the productive sector, from the rest of society, without major productive chains. A group of disconnected companies, which would be in a special economic zone, which has already been created, which will benefit from tax advantages and subsidies; a minimal sector of the economy linked to globalization.”
Indeed, in the Organic Code of Production, Trade and Investments, which was approved in record time and without debate, in December 2010, the “…Special Zones of Economic Development (ZEDE) are established, as a customs destination, in delimited spaces of the national territory, so that new investments can be established…”, (TITLE IV
Special Economic Development Zones)
According to an interview with Andes Agency, René Ramírez of Senecyt mentions that “the government's vision is for Yachay to generate a special economic development zone where the rules are clear and public and private investment knows what it must comply with.”[6]
Finally, and with great concern, Arturo Villavicencio warns that "behind all this there could be something more dangerous: charter cities. He explains that these cities are promoted by an American economist, Paul Romer.[7], who argues that growth is driven by knowledge and proposes charter cities as a solution for developing countries. This initiative involves ceding part of a country's territory to a large company, sponsored by multinational companies and a government, so that they can manage it, with their own law that guarantees foreign investment; the model example is Hong Kong. He indicates that in Honduras there are large charter city projects that are already being implemented.
Indeed, according to information found on the Internet about the so-called model cities in Honduras, these would be located in three Special Development Regions (RED) and have already generated serious internal conflicts related to the defense of territorial sovereignty and with the ancestral populations that occupy the territory where they would be established. The BBC Mundo link mentions that up to September 2012 “Honduras has received US$1.4 billion from South Korea for the initial works of the first model city. An additional investment of US$1.4 billion is expected for the basic infrastructure…”[8]It is worth mentioning that the city of Songdo, where Incheon is located, is also an autonomous business district.[9]. Aren't these too many coincidences?
WRITTEN BY AURORA DONOSO (ECOLOGICAL STUDIES)
[1] Dr. Arturo Villavicencio holds a PhD in Energy Economics from the University of Grenoble in France. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 as part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Team. In Ecuador, he chaired the National Council for the Evaluation and Accreditation of Higher Education – CONEA and was Rector of the Institute of Advanced National Studies IAEN. He is currently a research professor at the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar.
[2] http://www.yachay.ec/que-es-yachay/
[3] Arturo Villavicencio has just published his document of analysis and questioning on the situation of higher education policies in the country. “WHERE IS THE UNIVERSITY PROJECT OF THE CITIZEN REVOLUTION HEADED?” April 2013.
[4] www.yachay.ec/universidad-de-investigacion-cientifico-experimental/
[5] www.yachay.ec/ciudadyachay/socios/
[6]http://andes.info.ec/2009-2011.php/?p=123820
[7] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMSVkPBxl6Q&list=PLAF7913907908B38A
[8] http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/noticias/2012/09/120905_honduras_ciudades_modelo_privadas_yv.shtml
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