Jamaica to host SELA Seminar on Financing and Guarantees to support Caribbean SMEs

The objectives of the seminar are: analyse the feasibility for the creation of a guarantee mechanism for Caribbean SMEs; promote the inclusion of national and sub-regional financial institutions supporting SMEs in the creation of a regional guarantee system.

Caracas, 1 October 2015.- The “Seminar on Financing and Guarantees to support Caribbean SMEs” will be held in Kingston, Jamaica, on 15 and 16 October. The event is being organized by the Permanent Secretariat of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) with the purpose of making progress towards the creation and consolidation of guarantee systems to facilitate access to credits for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), so as to contribute to their development and production management.

The objectives of the seminar are: analyse the feasibility for the creation of a guarantee mechanism for Caribbean SMEs; promote the inclusion of national and sub-regional financial institutions supporting SMEs in the creation of a regional guarantee system; and receive contributions, suggestions, possible adjustments and comments from the participants in the two-day event, in order to enrich the contents of a pre-feasibility study conducted by SELA on the implementation of the aforementioned regional financial instrument.

Participants in the seminar will include the government focal points for SMEs of the Member States of SELA, officials from Caribbean organizations, representatives of business and financial institutions, and experts in the subject from the Caribbean Member States.

The Permanent Secretariat of SELA has been actively involved in the regional efforts to establish a guarantee system for the Caribbean and promote the training of public and private officials in subjects related to financing small and medium-sized enterprises.

In this connection, the Permanent Secretariat conducted the “Seminar-Workshop on Guarantee Systems in Central America” in San Salvador on 31 October and 01 November 2013, with the support of the Development Bank of El Salvador (BANDESAL). This event was aimed at financial and business institutions of the region.

With a focus on the Caribbean, the Permanent Secretariat of SELA also organized the “Seminar-Workshop on Credit Guarantee Systems in the Caribbean” in October 2014, in Georgetown, Guyana, with the support of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

More recently, in September this year, SELA organized in San José, Costa Rica, the “Seminar on Financing and Guarantees to support SMEs in Central America", jointly with the Directorate-General for Support to Small and Medium Enterprises (DIGEPYME), of the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Trade of Costa Rica.

With these activities, SELA – through the Regional Latin American and Caribbean Programme for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SELA-SME programme) – contributes to enrich the debates on ideas, suggestions and comments to promote the creation of a financial mechanism for Latin American and Caribbean SMEs.