Georgetown, Guyana. October  14 to 15, 2014

The Permanent Secretariat has been permanently involved in the region’s efforts to create and consolidate guarantee systems. This joint action by SELA and IBERAVAL, with the support of the Latin American Association of Development Financial Institutions (ALIDE) and the Portuguese Guarantee Society, has stimulated the creation of a significant amount of guarantee institutions in most countries of the region, including the Ibero-American Guarantee Network (REGAR).

Within the framework of activities of its Work Programme for 2012 to support SMEs in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Permanent Secretariat organized and conducted the “Training Seminar on guarantee systems to support SMEs”, with the support of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on 9 and 10 July 2012. In this meeting, a proposal was made to hold a CARICOM–SELA event in Guyana, with the participation of all Member States, to promote the development of a pilot programme on guarantee systems with the technical assistance of SELA.

Also in Central America, The Permanent Secretariat organized and conducted the “Seminar-Workshop on Guarantee Systems for Central American Countries” with the support of the Development Bank of El Salvador (BANDESAL), held in San Salvador, El Salvador, on 31 October 2013.