VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #0647/01 1361826
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 151826Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1040
INFO RUCNMER/MERCOSUR COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 000647 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR WHA/BSC AND OES/SCT 
COMMERCE FOR 4322/OIO/WH/OLAC/PEACHER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TSPL TSPA SCUL PREL AR
SUBJECT: ARGENTINA: MISSION AND U.S. COMPANIES COLLABORATE 
WITH S&T MINISTER ON COMPETITIVENESS ISSUES 
 
REF: BUENOS AIRES 273 AND PREVIOUS 
 
¶1. (U) This telegram is sensitive but unclassified, and not 
for Internet distribution. 
 
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Summary 
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¶2. (SBU) Ambassador Wayne hosted Argentine Science and 
Technology Minister Lino Baranao and CEOs from U.S. 
innovation-based companies May 9 in the latest of a number of 
sector or topic-specific events to bring together GOA 
ministers with relevant U.S. businesses.  The meeting helped 
to address a common concern of U.S. business in Argentina: 
lack of access to GOA decision-makers.  Following that 
meeting, the ambassador introduced Baranao to Daniel Behr, 
Director of Business Development at Harvard University's 
Office of Technology Development.  The company executives and 
Behr offered to assist Baranao toward his goal of speeding 
Argentina's technological development and inculcating a more 
entrepreneurial mindset in Argentina's scientists and 
researchers. 
 
¶3. (U) U.S. companies represented at the meeting with Baranao 
were 3M; Bristol Myers Squibb; Dupont; IBM; Intel; Johnson & 
Johnson; Merck, Sharp and Dohme; Monsanto; and Pfizer.  End 
Summary. 
 
------------------------- 
Baranao's Activist Vision 
------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Baranao began the company roundtable by explaining 
that he understands that it is no longer the 1970s and that 
Argentina must find its place in the global economy or 
suffer.  He said that President Fernandez de Kirchner wants 
to "harness a new productive model," with the state playing a 
more active role in promoting innovation.  With that in mind, 
Baranao told the executives that he hopes to spur Argentina's 
transition to a more knowledge-based economy by creating and 
enacting policies designed to encourage the establishment and 
success of technology-based businesses.  Specifically, 
Baranao pointed to biotechnology, nanotechnology, and 
software/IT as examples of sectors to which he has already 
decided to provide assistance.  That help will come in the 
form of GOA sector-specific, World Bank-capitalized venture 
capital funds, which Baranao expects will be created shortly. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Another aspect of what Baranao described as his 
"proactive approach" is the cultivation of public/private 
partnerships, or "strategic associations with the private 
sector."  Baranao reported that he is working with several 
universities in the U.S. and around the world, and that he is 
looking into some way to do the same with private sector 
companies.  Baranao also announced his intention to establish 
an institute he will call the Public-Private Institute of 
Technology, which will have as its mandate connecting 
government-funded researchers (and in Argentina, most 
researchers are government-funded) with Argentina's 
manufacturing sector. 
 
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Changing a Culture 
------------------ 
 
¶6. (U) Baranao explained to the company executives and to 
Behr that another of his priorities is to effect a change in 
Argentina's scientific culture.  He wants Argentina's 
scientists to understand that science and industry "can and 
should mix," and that innovations and research should end up 
in and benefit society.  Baranao noted that it will be a 
challenge to legitimize wealth creation among Argentine 
scientists, but that he expects that it will only take a few 
researchers striking it rich to change the collective 
mindset.  To that end, Baranao said that he will focus his 
initial efforts on the few sectors named above, in the hope 
that a few "emblematic cases" will result.  The watchword, 
Baranao said, is "use-inspired basic science," or convincing 
scientists to find answers to existing problems instead of 
looking for problems to fit their solutions. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Another element of Baranao's panned cultural change 
is to establish within the GOA an understanding of the 
necessity of protecting intellectual property.  Baranao said 
that a debate about whether patents are "good or bad" still 
 
rages in Argentina, and he stressed the need to get beyond 
that stage.  Establishing and enforcing appropriate IPR 
protections is a difficult issue in Argentina, Baranao noted, 
partly because of a politically powerful local pharmaceutical 
industry that fears a change in IPR standards.  More 
important, Baranao thought, is that high-level government 
officials are not as well informed about the IPR issue as 
they could be. 
 
------------------ 
Fruitful Exchanges 
------------------ 
 
¶8. (SBU) Baranao spent most of the two meetings fielding 
questions from the ambassador's corporate and academic 
visitors.  With company executives, Baranao supported 
stronger intellectual property protections; encouraged 
company representatives to tell their stories more ably, so 
that Argentines from all social strata can better understand 
the contributions their companies had made to Argentina; and 
in one specific case explained to the 3M rep how that company 
could most effectively work with the GOA.  Baranao also faced 
tough questions, as when the Dupont representative questioned 
Argentina's attractiveness to the shareholders of 
multinational corporations relative to other countries where 
they operate.  Still, the mood was friendly, and all the 
companies present expressed a desire to cooperate with 
Baranao to further his vision. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Baranao's hour with Harvard's Behr, whose job is to 
promote start-up technology companies using Harvard's venture 
capital, focused on how to overcome barriers to Argentina's 
entrepreneurial innovation and technological competitiveness. 
 Chief among those, Baranao said, is a lack of what he 
described as "technology managers," individuals who 
understand both science and business.  Behr pointed out 
several U.S. universities with specialized curricula in that 
area, information that Baranao received with interest. 
(Embassy Buenos Aires is working on a project to send 
Argentine curriculum specialists to visit U.S. universities 
with relevant courses of study.  Behr's list will figure in 
that project.)  Baranao also said that venture capitalists 
have not been investing strongly in Argentina because there 
are not enough promising projects in the pipeline.  Behr 
suggested that he had found success by clearly delineating to 
scientists areas of corporate interest, and Baranao said that 
he is trying to do the same thing via the creation of the 
World Bank-funded sector-specific venture capital funds.  As 
the meeting ended, Behr offered his expertise to Baranao. 
 
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Comment 
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¶10. (SBU) Baranao's interactions with company representatives 
and with Harvard's Behr were consistent with the views he 
expressed during his two previous meetings with the 
ambassador (reftels).  Such consistency, especially in an 
individual who is essentially inventing a role (he is 
Argentina's first S&T Minister), is a sign of the clarity of 
the goals Baranao has set for himself.  That those goals -- 
leading Argentina into the knowledge age and changing 
Argentina's scientific culture along the way -- are 
especially ambitious does not seem to have yet induced the 
minister to waver.  We will track whether and how he decides 
to use the goodwill he generated during his May 9 meetings to 
further his agenda.  We are also generating a set of follow 
up ideas for work with U.S. companies in promoting the 
advantages of U.S. investment.  For example, it is clear that 
the Argentine public does not appreciate or understand the 
extent of investment, training and CSR activities now 
underway by U.S. companies in the innovative and knowledge 
economy areas. 
WAYNE