SENA's new support to the setting up of businesses
Technology to the service of business ideas

• We are talking about SENA's Tecnoparque, where Colombians will be able to play with technology and develop their imagination and put together their business ideas.
• It will initially be working in Bogotá; then it will have branches in the Caribbean Coast, Valle, Risaralda and Antioquia.
• It is a unique centre in Latin America because of its characteristic of being a seedbed of business technological ideas.
• As from today, Colombians will be able to enrol in SENA's Technological Park on its Web page www.tecnoparquecolombia.org

Bogotá, D.C. 1 March 2006 - Now Colombian youth can access the necessary technology to develop their own innovating or business ideas in one place.

We are talking about Tecnoparque Colombia, an environment filled with intelligence, innovation and creativity. It was promoted by SENA and it will house the technological ideas of national "eager brains".

There, new entrepreneurs will have access to equipment, tools and technological knowledge to test and verify their ideas and put their creativity into practice, thus developing innovation and transformation in services, products or materials that already exist. The intention is that they contribute to improve competitiveness and productivity in enterprises or even restructuring what will be their own business.

"We seek to stimulate the creative and innovating capacity of our youth by means of an interaction with technology; contribute to reduce the technological gap that prevents people from facing the challenge of setting up a business, as an alternative to self-employment and as a means of generating wealth; and support the personal and professional development of the entity's students, of our graduates, university students, professionals and Colombians in general", said Director General of SENA, Darío Montoya Mejía.

Technology-based businesses

After experiencing Tecnoparque, the entrepreneur leaves with a clear plan of a new product with a high technological content or a project to create a Product Unit, which he or she may consolidate and put into practice with the help of a Business Incubator, the Enterprise Fund or a promoting institution.

In the same way, Tecnoparque supports the entrepreneur to contact clients and sell their technological developments. These businesses are carried out through an Associates and Contacts Network that will be in the possession of Tecnoparque (formed by universities, chambers of commerce, enterprises, technological development centres, technology providers and business incubators, among others).

"Once the entrepreneur interacts with technology and devises a product, a technological development or an enterprise, Tecnoparque supports him or her to develop that idea, make contact as a talent with universities, other enterprises, centres of technological development, business incubators or other related bodies by looking for the best place for that talent to be productive", said Montoya Mejía.

Tecnoparque Colombia will first deal with the technological areas of microelectronics, new materials, information, communication, logistics and design technologies. As these are mainstream technologies for all sectors, they can be applied to the development of different products or services or the setting up of Business Units of any economic activity.

In Tecnoparque, individuals acquire - through a process of self-teaching - the necessary technological knowledge to devise their own product (or business idea) and develop the corresponding prototype (model). To do so, they have the assistance of advisers, who are experts in the areas of marketing, management and finance and may help them to realise whether their project has possibilities as a business; that is, if it contributes to generate value in production or services or not.

Knowledge at everyone's reach

But what happens if an entrepreneur wants to access the services of Tecnoparque Colombia but does not have a clear notion about his or her invention or business idea? In fact, this is not an obstacle, since the intention there is to use technology and experienced assistance to optimise his or her talent and develop his or her own initiatives.

Therefore, the only requirement that the interested people need to comply with when coming to SENA's Tecnoparque is being motivated and wanting to overcome the hurdles of setting up a business.

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