BELTRAIDE Presents Action Plan for CENPROMYPE Pro-Tempore Presidency

On Monday January 23, 2023, at the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Center for the Regional Promotion of Micro and Small Enterprise in Central America (CENPROMYPE), the Belize Trade, and Investment Development Service (BELTRAIDE) presented their plan to coordinate the Regional MSME Agenda during Belize's Pro-Tempore Presidency from January through June 2023.

The Executive Director of BELTRAIDE, Dr. Leroy Almendarez, highlighted plans to consolidate the institutional mechanism that enables the continuity and streamlining of the MSME agenda in the region in accordance with CENPROMYPE’s functional transformation. He also emphasized three priority areas: thematics, institutions, and interinstitutional collaboration which are necessary to have reliable information for decision making, to promote business development and entrepreneurial culture, and to garner funding from regional and international financial institutions to support implementation of the regional agenda.

In addition, he indicated that it is important to:

• resume the quota payment agreements and institutional reforms as part of the institutional priorities,

• establish commissions to address priority issues,

• establish a mechanism to display regional issues in national agendas,

• establish a communication and visibility channel of regional activities, and

• develop a mechanism to balance bi- lateral and regional cooperation to maximize its use and complementation.

Finally, as part of the inter-institutional priorities, he emphasized the impact of MSMEs on the economic subsystem, the importance of mainstreaming the MSME topic into the integration agenda, and the need to strengthen the relationship with international organizations and strategic partners.

Also in attendance were the Vice Minister of MIPYME of Guatemala, Fernando Escalante; the President of the National Commission for Micro and Small Enterprises (CONAMYPE) of El Salvador, Paul Steiner; the Executive Director of the National Service for Entrepreneurship and Small Businesses (SENPRENDE) of Honduras, Dennis Corrales; the Vice Minister of Family, Community, Cooperative and Associative Economy of Nicaragua, Benito Aragón; the Vice Minister of Economy of Costa Rica, Christian Rucavado; the Director General of the Panamanian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Authority (AMPYME), Oscar Ramos; the Vice Minister of Development of MSMEs of the Dominican Republic, Jorge Morales Paulino; Shirley Hernández from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) and David Cabrera, Executive Director of Cenpromype.