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Abstract - Quest for Global Competitiveness - Universidad de Puerto ...

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the “over<strong>de</strong>pen<strong>de</strong>nce” on external capital in the <strong>for</strong>m of <strong>for</strong>eign direct investment (FDI) andpointed out its benefits and limitations., while an industrial support association officialcompared and contrasted <strong>Puerto</strong> Rico’s success in the pharmaceutical industry cluster withthe bioscience cluster and stated that “we are in a different situation: tax incentives, a goodlabor <strong>for</strong>ce and investment climate help, but we need to un<strong>de</strong>rstand that bio is a high value,low volume operation.” He contrasted this with the pharmaceutical industry’s focus on highvolume production. One pharmaceutical plant ex-general manager indicated that theindustrial ecosystem in the emergent cluster was evolving and that “limited backwardlinkages”, mostly supply of basic production inputs, had been created between multinationaland local companies.An official of a <strong>Puerto</strong> Rico bio industry support association categorized theestablishment of a bioprocess <strong>de</strong>velopment and training facility in early 2009 as a “step in theright direction to strategically enhance <strong>Puerto</strong> Rico´s capabilities in biotechnologymanufacturing, research, bioprocess improvement, and training,” but ad<strong>de</strong>d that, to date, “noclear vision of its long-term relationship and interaction with MNCs has been <strong>for</strong>mulated.”Finding 1.2 – The wi<strong>de</strong> spatial dispersion of MNCs in the emergent cluster haslimited the <strong>de</strong>velopment of linkages and innovation with local firms.Seven of twelve <strong>Puerto</strong> Rico respon<strong>de</strong>nts explained that the five “anchor” or majorbioscience manufacturing plants there are wi<strong>de</strong>ly dispersed in a geographical area covering aradius of 25 miles. In contrast, interviewees in the <strong>de</strong>veloped cluster pointed out that thatCleveland Clinic and University Hospitals, the two major healthcare centers in the Clevelandand Northeast Ohio area, are located within a radius of 1 to 2 miles from each other. Nomajor multinational pharmaceutical or bioscience firms were reported to be operating in the17

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