During 2020, the world faced one of the worst economic scenarios due to the proliferation of Covid-19. The consequences of the pandemic were felt in the contraction of economic activity, business closures and job losses. In this regard, smaller businesses, which represent 90% of all registered businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean and contribute significantly to employment, were the most affected.

In 2022, Latin America and the Caribbean experienced a further reopening with respect to both the internal and external constraints brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, economic performance was dissimilar during the first and second half of the year. Moreover, the recovery of countries has been uneven across subregions, with some countries showing higher growth rates than before the pandemic, while in others the pace of expansion continues to slow.

Although regional growth during the first half of 2022 was favoured by the strong demand for exports from the US and Canada, favourable commodity prices, more dynamic remittances, recovery of employment and resumption of credit, a slowdown in the pace of growth was evidenced in the second half of the year, caused by the loss of dynamism in the demand of the main world consumers. In this sense, growth expectations for Latin America and the Caribbean have been revised downwards, from 1% estimated by Moody's Analytics to 1.3% estimated by the World Bank. Nevertheless, growth rates for 2023, despite being lower than those shown in 2022, will remain positive, with trends towards progressive stabilisation by 2024.

Given this scenario, the implementation of assistance programmes for MSMEs that include variables such as business incubation and acceleration should be a priority in the public agendas of the countries in the region, which requires not only the financing of seed capital but also the intervention of sectors such as academia, which are the promoters of innovative incubation programmes, and the public sector, which is responsible for executing the policy aimed at this sector.

It should be noted that incubators and accelerators provide a range of support services in the creation of entrepreneurial initiatives and during the early stages of the life cycle of these initiatives. Both usually offer a package of services covering aspects such as: training, workshops, business advice and mentoring, access to networks, networking opportunities, access to finance, among others. Evidence suggests that businesses supported by incubators and accelerators tend to have higher survival rates, create more jobs and generate more revenue.

Leveraging these capacities for the creation of support schemes focused on smaller-sized enterprises is a particularly relevant combination in the process of regional economic recovery. In this context, the Permanent Secretariat of SELA is conducting the Seminar: Business acceleration mechanisms: supporting the development of MSMEs in Latin America.

• Understand the status of MSMEs in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the main needs to boost their development.
• Disseminate best practices of incubator and accelerator initiatives that contribute to the generation of innovative and resilient ventures.
• Propose public policy strategies to support access to technical training, mentoring and financing for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the region.

Event aimed public and private organisations, companies and entrepreneurs who are developing proposals to support the growth of MSMEs, as well as disseminating the importance of networks of incubators and accelerators in the process.

Virtual seminar.
Zoom platform.
Registration link: https://bit.ly/3Xx0tud
Date: 05 April 2023
Time: 10 am (Venezuela time)