The Ibero-American Programme of Institutional Cooperation for Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (IBERPYME) was created within the framework of the VIII Ibero-American Summit, held in October 1998 in the city of Oporto, Portugal. In the context of this Summit, a proposal was made to create an Ibero-American programme to promote cooperation among the various – public and private – institutions to support the development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, which was welcomed in the Final Declaration of Ibero-American Heads of State and Government.

The most recent background of the IBERPYME Programme is the experience gained by the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) on the topic of SMEs from mid-1990 and especially since 1996, as a result of the Cooperation Agreement between the then Spanish International Cooperation Agency (AECI) and SELA.

Therefore, in the First Meeting of the IBERPYME Programme, held in Caracas in April 1999, governments decided that the Permanent Secretariat should assume the responsibility of becoming the Programme Management Unit. This meant that SELA had to be in charge of organizing its activities, channelling the interests and needs of participating countries, managing the programmes and activities designed and agreed upon, and systematically informing of the conditions for participation and implementation of actions in a coordinated manner.

After 12 years, the IBERPYME Programme, implemented and managed by SELA and attached to the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), has contributed to the development of organizations and institutions to support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ibero-American countries.

Cuban authorities, on the occasion of the official visit of the Permanent Secretary of SELA to Havana (March 2009), conveyed their interest that, through the IBERPYME Programme, Cuban institutions are supported in the necessary exchange of experiences and best practices in our region as regards management and development of agricultural cooperatives and agri-food mini industries, which represent production units to be promoted as part of the agricultural transformation process in that country.