The Institute of Private Enterprise Develop-ment (IPED) and the Inter American Investment Corporation (IIC) are partnering to deliver a training and technical assistance programme aimed at helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Guyana to enhance their competitiveness abroad.
Stabroek Business has learnt that IPED has been identified to implement the IIC’s Innovative Financing for SMEs (FINPYME) Export Plus Programme, under which selected local SMEs will receive technical assistance in specific areas with a view to enhancing their export capabilities.
The technical assistance programme will allow selected entities to benefit from a process that will enable them to comply with certification in such areas as sanitation, packaging, and quality; operations upgrading initiatives aimed at improving productivity and management skills enhancement in such areas as marketing, strategic planning and export sales. Technical assistance will also be provided to selected enterprises through both individual group-based workshops.
FINPYME provides support for the World Trade Organization’s Aid For Trade Initiative which seeks to help developing countries improve their ability to operate in international markets by enhancing their trade promotion programmes and assisting them in the development of important infrastructure.
Local companies seeking to benefit the FINPYME programme must have been operating for a minimum of three years and must have annual sales of at least US$200,000. Additionally, entities wishing to participate in the programme must be in compliance with environmental and occupational safety laws. Apart from these eligibility criteria companies identified for FINPYME technical assistance must also subject their business plans to scrutiny in order to determine the viability of their operations.
The FINPYME programme has already been launched in several other countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua Panamá, Domini-can Republic, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago and Colombia.
The IIC is a multilateral financial institution and a member of the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) group. Its mission is to promote the economic development of its regional member countries by encouraging the establishment, expansion and modernization of private enterprises, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises. FINPYME is also supported by the Korea IIC SME Development Trust Fund.
