BACKGROUND
In Latin America and the Caribbean, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) represent a great opportunity for regional social and economic development. In fact, they make up a large part of the private sector and contribute significantly to job creation. However, they face huge challenges, such as their high rate of informality, lack of innovation and reduced growth as enterprises, since they are usually established to cover a need, instead of developing a business model, which is directly related to the main problem they face: the difficulty to access financing.
The issue of financing and guarantees for MSMEs has been dealt with on previous occasions by the Permanent Secretariat, in view of its importance and impact on these companies. The background to these activities should be recalled. It includes two meetings held by the Permanent Secretariat: The “Seminar-Workshop on Guarantee Systems in Central America” (San Salvador, El Salvador. 31 October to 1 November 2013) and the “Seminar-Workshop on Credit Guarantee Systems in the Caribbean" (Georgetown, Guyana, 14 and 15 October 2014). More recently, in 2015, the Permanent Secretariat conducted two activities to analyze this problem:
- The “Seminar on financing and guarantee systems to support SMEs in the Caribbean” (15 and 16 October 2015. Kingston, Jamaica), which featured the “Pre-feasibility study on the creation of a Regional Guarantee System for SMEs in the Caribbean” (SP/SFGA-PYMES-C/DT No. 2-15), and
- The “Seminar on financing and guarantees to support SMEs in Central America” (3 and 4 September 2015. San Jose, Costa Rica), where the study “Financing and guarantees to support SMEs in Central America. Pre-feasibility study on the creation of a Regional Guarantee System for SMEs in Central America” (SP/SFGA-PYMES-CA/DT No. 2-15) was submitted.
The conclusions of both meetings led to actions and useful recommendations to continue strengthening guarantee and financial systems for MSMEs in the Caribbean and Central America.
This new regional meeting allowed for monitoring the achievements made in financing and guarantees in Latin America and the Caribbean and to analyze innovative financing mechanisms available to MSMEs. One aspect of particular interest was the possibility of establishing a Regional Guarantee System for the Caribbean, for which it would be necessary to make strategic alliances with other regional organizations that favour its performance, such as CARICOM, CASME and the Caribbean Development Bank, among others.
