Gerardo Patacconi on inclusive growth: Local sourcing is sometimes the problem

Aid groups have increasingly called on multinational companies to be more inclusive in their business practices. One way to do that is to employ local producers from developing countries.

Finding local suppliers that can meet the needs and standards of companies is sometimes a challenge, Gerardo Patacconi, chief of the Cluster and Business Linkages Unit at the U.N. Industrial Development Organization, told Pete Troilo, director of global advisory and analysis at Devex, on the fringes of the 2012 European Development Days.

“Just yesterday (Oct. 15) this colleague from our director in Mexico said: ‘You know, there is an opportunity here. They are expanding [the] automotive sector, [but] they cannot find local suppliers even for small components. Can we do something about it?’ Yes, yes we can,” he said.

Watch the conversation between Troilo and Patacconi on emerging trends in industrial development around the globe and some of the partnerships UNIDO is developing with the private sector, part of a series of conversations we video-taped with global development leaders in the center of the action at EDD12 in Brussels.

Check out our complete coverage of European Development Days 2012.