SELA AND SEGIB AGREE ON WORK PLAN FOR MSMES THROUGH 2020

The Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) and the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) have agreed to carry out a Work Plan for the period 2019-2020 aimed at promoting, in the countries of Central America, activities of mutual interest and exchange of knowledge on Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs), as well as the development of the "Public Policy Index for MSMEs in Latin America and the Caribbean (IPPALC)".

The Work Plan was signed on Wednesday 14 November 2018 by the Permanent Secretary of SELA, Ambassador Javier Paulinich, and the Ibero-American General Secretary, Rebeca Grynspan, in Antigua, Guatemala.

The parties will be able to carry out activities in the field of technical and institutional cooperation, mainly: a) organize seminars, workshops, forums and train specialists in areas of mutual interest; b) work with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for the promotion of the IPPALC in the Central American countries. The IPPALC is a multilateral initiative to analyse the policies to foster this economic sector, which is being carried out along with the Pacific Alliance, as well as Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay.

In this connection, SELA and SEGIB expect the following results: support Central American countries in the assessment of the development level of their public policies aimed at MSMEs and contribute to outlining clear objectives to boost the performance of this productive sector; encourage the exchange of best practices; and improve the competitiveness and capabilities of MSMEs in order to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the regional and subregional integration process, based on the results obtained through the adoption of this indicator, while identifying the degree of convergence of the policies with internationally recognized best practices.