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IDB to Support Medium-size Companies in Latin America
The President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Luis Alberto Moreno, announced that the Bank will provide financing and technical advice to medium-size enterprises in Latin America and the Caribbean seeking to establish or expand international operations.
The IDB will provide commercial banks with $70 million for expanding their lines of credit to firms wishing to export or invest abroad, Moreno said.The Bank also will make available $350 million in guarantees through local banks to companies that participate in international bidding for the provision of services.
President Moreno made the announcement on the first day of the XXII Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government.
Small and medium-size enterprises in Latin America and the Caribbean are lagging behind other regions of the world when it comes to overseas operations, Moreno said. In Latin America barely one in 10 these companies carry out international activities, compared to one in four in the European Union. The reason is that they lack funding and access to information and services, which constitute barriers to participation in global markets.
The IDB will consolidate tools to help these firms’ efforts to operate overseas through a new platform calledConnectaméricas. The platform, which will provide businesses with information on potential trade partners and investors as well as data on tariffs and other trade rules, will be developed in collaboration with export promotion agencies and major business schools in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, said Moreno.
The financial instruments for medium-size companies are part of a suite of options that the IDB makes available to firms of all sizes in the region. The Bank’s Trade Finance Facilitation Program has supported 2,966 trade and investment transactions for companies from 18 countries in the region for a total of $2.6 billion.
On Nov. 19, Moreno was to participate in a conference with more than 100 companies from the Iberian peninsula that will describe IDB partnership opportunities for the private sector in Latin America and the Caribbean. The event will take place at the IDB’s European office in Madrid.
Published in Notitas de Noticias
2012-11-17 19:01:36
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