Quality for Venezuelan MSMEs

(Caracas, August 29, 2012). A Technical Cooperation Agreement was signed between CAF –Latin American development bank- and the National Reciprocal Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises (FONPYME) with the purpose of supporting the 2012 Program to Promote and Provide Productive Incentives for the National Reciprocal Guarantee System.

The purpose of the agreement, signed by Enrique García, CAF’s president and CEO, and María Magdalena Zambrano, the president of FONPYME, is to foster the development of micro, small, and medium enterprises as well as Venezuelan cooperatives through training and specialized consultancy in quality management systems that will permit their consolidation and entry into the market.

“CAF’s agenda envisages strong support for Latin American MSMEs, a key sector for the region’s development, by means of different financial instruments and public policies so that they can achieve greater levels of efficiency and competitiveness on the global level,” explained CAF’s President and CEO Enrique García during the signing ceremony.

García added that the sector “must diversify its offer of exports in order to move ahead with its productive transformation, achieve higher rates of growth, and generate more jobs and higher added value exports.”

Zambrano, for her part, stated that this agreement is part of the actions being taken by the Venezuelan Government in connection with strengthening the sector and highlighted the synergy generated by the participation of the main national public actors associated with MSMEs in Venezuela, such as FONPYME, the National Institute for the Development of Small and Medium Industry (INAPYMI), the Retrofitting Fund (FONDOIN), reciprocal guarantee societies (RGS), PDVSA, and Banco del Tesoro, as well as international development bodies such as the Spanish Agency for international Development Cooperation (AECID).

The non-reimbursable resources granted by CAF will be used to hire a group of national and international consultants who will provide training for a group of MSMEs to improve the quality of their management and internal processes so that they manage to obtain the ISO 9000 Quality Management System certification.