BACKGROUND
Since 2013, the Permanent Secretariat has been working on the issue of export consortiums as a partnership mechanism for the promotion of exports and internationalisation of artisans, micro and small-sized enterprises.
During 2013, the Permanent Secretariat, organized in conjunction with the Agency for Export Development in the Caribbean (CEDA) and the Export and Investment Centre of Dominican Republic (CEI-RD), the “Workshop on internationalization and promotion of consortiums of Caribbean SMEs”, which was held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in July 2013. As a result, an agreement was reached to organize workshops for training and technical exchanges among representatives of the Caribbean, on business networks and consortiums in the region.
In July 2013, the “Regional Workshop on Development of Handicraft SMEs” was organized and conducted in collaboration with the Colombian Handicraft Agency of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, in Barranquilla, Colombia. On that occasion, the representatives of several countries of the region expressed their interest in deepening knowledge about the issues and methodologies of Origin and Export Consortium submitted during this activity.
The Workshop on Export Consortiums was held in May 2014, in the cities of Piura and Lima, Peru, with the support of the Regional Government of Piura and the Committee on Small Industry of Peru. It was aimed exclusively at the representatives of the Caribbean countries that participated in the event carried out in Dominican Republic in 2013, so that they could visit operating export consortiums to have a first-hand exchange with entrepreneurs and artisans as regards techniques and processes. In addition, several proposals to create export consortiums in Caribbean countries were submitted.
Later on, the Permanent Secretariat organized two regional workshops: i) the II Regional Workshop on Development of Handicraft SMEs, which took place in Quito, Ecuador, on 18 and 19 September 2014, organized jointly with the Ministry of Industries and Productivity of Ecuador, where information was provided about the achievements made as regards the creation of export consortiums within the handicraft sectors in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru; and ii) the Seminar-Workshop on Productive Coordination in Latin America, held on 25 and 26 September 2014 in Mexico City, with the support of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the co-sponsorship of the National Institute of Entrepreneurs of the Secretariat of Economy of Mexico (INADEM). Both meetings were aimed at representatives from governments and private organizations.
For the year 2015, a proposal was made to conduct a “Regional Meeting on Export Consortiums” that should explore the achievements made by this type of consortiums in the region, in countries whose policies in this area are more developed, and also analyse the progress made by the countries of the Caribbean during 2014.
