Greater opportunities for Peru's SMEs in Pacific Alliance with support from CAF and COFIDE

In order to boost productivity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Pacific Alliance, CAF—development bank of Latin America—and COFIDE, Development Bank of Peru, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate access and promote the use of financial products and services, technical assistance and knowledge transfer, with an emphasis on business innovation, internationalization and productive integration.

The activities to be jointly developed by CAF and COFIDE include stimulus for private investment in dynamic and high-impact ventures by creating new investment vehicles; fostering a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in different stakeholders in the nation; and supporting financial inclusion, local economic development and social innovation programs for vulnerable groups; among others.

At the signing of the MoU, CAF executive president Luis Carranza assured that “these initiatives will promote financing to SMEs that have specific projects for internationalization and tapping international markets, innovation in products, services and processes, or that wish to effectively integrate into both regional and international value chains and clusters, in order to boost productivity, the integration process and economic development of Pacific Alliance members.”

In addition, the Chairman of the COFIDE Board, Carlos Linares, noted: “This agreement will foster growth, development and competitiveness of Peru’s dynamic and high-impact ventures by promoting innovation, with a view to creating the necessary conditions to tap markets with innovative ideas and meet the economic, environmental and social needs of our country.”

Similar Memoranda of Understanding were signed between CAF and Bancoldex (Colombia), NAFIN and Bancomext (Mexico), and will be signed soon with CORFO (Chile), which are the development banks of the Pacific Alliance countries, in order to foster the use of and access to financial products and technical assistance for SMEs in different areas of common interest.