[ARCHIVO] President Bachelet signs bill for the creation of a Science and Technology Ministry
In addition to the new ministry, a Research and Development Agency will be created to execute policies; the National Council for Science, Technology and Innovation will be established as a permanent body and the Interministerial ICT Committee will be created to strengthen the National Innovation System through better coordination and a strategic outlook.
The President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, signed the bill to set up a Science and Technology Ministry at an event in the Montt Varas Hall of La Moneda Palace. She was accompanied by the Interior and Public Security Minister, Mario Fernandez, the Treasury Minister, Rodrigo Valdés, the Minister Secretary General of the Presidency, Nicolás Eyzaguirre, the Education Minister, Adriana Delpiano and the Economy, Development and Tourism Minister, Luis Felipe Céspedes.
“This initiative is confirmation of an essential step for Chile’s future: we are putting knowledge, innovation, all aspects of the sciences and the humanities at the center of a new emphasis in how we approach our development”, the President announced.
In addition to the new ministry, the bill will create a Research and Development Agency to execute policy (replacing Conicyt).
At the same time, the National Council for Science, Technology and Innovation will be established as a permanent body and the Interministerial ICT Committee will be set up to strengthen the National Innovation System through better coordination and a strategic outlook.
During her speech, President Bachelet explained that the bill “ensures that the functioning of the ministry will be transparent and will always respond to the diversity of outlooks and interests which coexist in Chile.”
“Because we want this ministry to help to lay the foundations for a thinking society – not with the codes and contexts of the 20th century but fully inserted into the new millennium. We have tried to give balanced weighting to the various current perspectives in thinking about and building tomorrow”, she said.
The new ministry will be responsible for advising and cooperating with the President of Chile in the design, formulation, coordination, implementation and evaluation of policies, plans and programs intended to strengthen science and technology.
It will also have a number of functions and powers in order to carry out its task, including designing the programs and instruments for execution by the Agency in order to provide grants, loans and other assistance to the development of science and technology in the country.
The Ministry will also have an important role in building relations with foreign organizations in its field, to ensure proper dialogue relating to science and technology on an international level.
“In fact, our ambition is to create an institutional platform with a real capacity to construct a future horizon, in which knowledge, informed debate, creativity and a long-term view will be the drivers of integrated development”, said the President.