Meeting on Export Consortiums for the Caribbean in Peru

Caracas, May 8.- Caribbean small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will gain knowledge about the experiences of Peru in work organization and methods to establish export and origin consortiums and make inroads into international markets.

The three-day Meeting on Export Consortiums for the Caribbean, organized by the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA), through the SELA-SMEs Programme, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Small Industry Committee of Peru (COPEI), is being held today in Lima.

The main objectives of the event are: Review and evaluate the proposals on potential export consortiums in Caribbean countries; learn in situ Peruvian experiences in export consortiums; identify areas of training and technical support for the development of selected export consortiums; and establish a Plan of Action to monitor such consortiums.

Small and medium-sized enterprises face the challenge of exporting, which makes them formulate strategies with long-term objectives in order to find new markets, with trained staff at all levels acting in an integrated manner and establishing forms of linkage among the various sectors involved in the SMEs chain.

The Permanent Secretary of SELA, Ambassador Roberto Guarnieri, highlighted it as a priority area. The SELA-SMEs Programme is expected to strengthen the capacities of institutions, entities and bodies interested in promoting and executing programmes that encourage the creation of new production units, the expansion of existing ones, the technological transformation and the productive coordination of SMEs, among other objectives.

This is a priority area for many reasons, including the very nature of SELA, a regional body for consultation, coordination, cooperation and joint economic and social promotion, as set forth in the Panama Convention, signed in 1975. It is composed of 28 Member States from Latin America and the Caribbean. Similarly, SELA shall support regional integration processes and promote coordinated actions, respecting the commitments made within the framework of such processes.

Furthermore, this activity has a human face, having an impact on people being part of SMEs and the economies of the countries involved. As a matter of fact, Peruvian successful experiences will be shared with Caribbean countries as a way to strengthen regional integration.

The SELA-SMEs Programme was created in October 2012, based on the experience gained by SELA since 1999 in promoting public policies and instruments to support SMEs through the IBERPYME Programme, with the support of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).

This meeting will be attended by representatives of SMEs Chambers of Commerce in the area of export and strategies for the internationalization of their members. Delegates of Bahamas, Belize, Barbados, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Dominican Republic will participate.

The agenda for this event includes the presentation of proposals by representatives of Caribbean countries; a discussion about them and guidelines for further work; and visits to a centre of production of ceramics with designation of origin; the Association of Producers of Organic Mango in Piura and the Association of Producers of Coffee and Sugarcane in the Sierra de Piura.

This meeting is part of the activities set forth in the Work Programme of SELA for 2014 and focused on the field of SMEs, which include a forum on public policies to promote and support SMEs in Latin America and the Caribbean; training workshops on public policies to promote and support SMEs; a seminar-workshop on productive coordination in Latin America; a regional workshop on the development of handicraft SMEs; seminars on guarantee systems; a seminar on the promotion of innovation to improve competitiveness of SMEs in Latin America and the Caribbean; a seminar on the apparel industry and economic development in the Caribbean; a meeting on institutional strengthening of SMEs business associations; and a meeting of SMEs entrepreneurs from Latin America and the Caribbean and the Iberian Peninsula for business identification and development.

Events and activities of the Work Programme of SELA to support SMEs are linked to the CELAC Plan of Action, aimed at accelerating sustainable industrial productive development by strengthening the SME sector, which is essential to achieve this goal.