Support to promote national production with value added in Ecuador

CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, and the Small and Medium-Sized Chamber of Industry of Pichincha (CAPEIPI, for it acronym in Spanish), signed a technical cooperation agreement to coordinate and strengthen value chains in the food and metallurgical sectors. 

Bernardo Requena, CAF's Director Representative in Ecuador, stated, "The project is framed within a series of initiatives that CAF supports and strengthens in the country, aligned with the national productive matrix change policy. In this respect, the project has been designed with components aimed at the comprehensive strengthening of clusters with a clear focus on innovation and sustainability". 

The strengthening of the food and metallurgical value chains, that is included within the priorities established by the Vice Presidency of the Republic, seeks to generate shared value between the SME's and larger scale companies in order to promote the national production with value added. To achieve this objective, a business model will be developed between the small and medium-sized companies of those sectors with anchor companies, as well as in fairs and business rounds. 

Activities will be focused on the development of local suppliers, and are linked to the Progresar Program of the National Financial Corporation (Corporación Financiera Nacional-CFN) financed partially by CAF through the application of the strengthened companies to loans for the acquisition of assets. 

For Marco Carrion, President of CAPEIPI "The project emerges as an inclusion proposal for the SMS's in the provision of goods and services to public and private companies, under a model to substitute imports and activate real production with value added". 

A previous initiative is the project Aglomerados Productivos Locales (APL), started three years ago in Cuenca with the appliances and wood furniture chains, which resulted in improvements in the efficiency and productivity of these clusters.