SELA organizes Seminar-Workshop on Entrepreneurship in Barbados

Entrepreneurship is an opportunity for people to insert in the national or local productive chain with the aim of increasing the value added of goods and services in the economy and the quality of life of its inhabitants, thus reducing poverty.

The Permanent Secretariat of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) is organizing, in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development of Barbados, the “Seminar–Workshop on Entrepreneurship: Towards the creation of an entrepreneurial-driven economy-demystifying the journey,” to be held in Bridgetown, Barbados, on 17 and 18 August 2016.

This event aims to: 1) Promote an exchange of experiences accumulated in various programmes for development of entrepreneurs; 2) Analyze the progress made on entrepreneurship at the regional level, evaluating the causes of its development; 3) Encourage business organization in sectors that represent economic and social opportunities and 4) Promote the creation of national systems of business incubators, among other mechanisms in entrepreneurship. In addition, participants are expected to consider features and prospects for dynamic enterprises and suggest new mechanisms for financing the entrepreneurial process, such as seed capital funds, networks of angel investors and venture capital funds.

SELA has come a long way on the design of public policies for the development of SMEs and MSMEs and thus the promotion of entrepreneurship in LAC countries. In this connection, it has organized since 2011 several courses on entrepreneurship strategies for the development of new enterprises, where information was provided to representatives of universities and public and private promoters of entrepreneurship about successful methods implemented in some countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

On this occasion, the Permanent Secretariat prepared the base study Recent Experiences in entrepreneurship programmes and business incubators in Latin America and the Caribbean: Towards the creation of an economy driven by entrepreneurship (SP/STE-HCEIEDP/DT No. 2-16), which analyzes the major policies and initiatives being implemented in the region to promote entrepreneurship, as well as efforts aimed at the creation of incubators and accelerators of companies.

This event will be attended by government representatives responsible for SMEs, institutions that promote entrepreneurship, and representatives of the private and academic sectors.