Innovation policies in five leading countries in Latin America

The importance of innovation for economic growth and for improving people's quality of life in recent years is palpable. In this regard, it is important to study the policies that countries implement to improve innovation activity. The aim of the article is to identify various levers, models and specific incentives for innovation and research and development (R&D) in the five leading Latin American countries in this field and to draw conclusions and guidelines that are useful for both from a scientific point of view, as well as for the improvement of the innovation policy of Bulgaria. After studying the specifics, it was found that innovation policy plays an important role in the five countries studied. In some of them, such as Costa Rica and Colombia, good efficiency is achieved in the implementation of various measures in this area. But further and focused work on innovation and R&D is still needed to achieve satisfactory results