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Countries of the Region Discuss Public Policy on Small Businesses in OAS Forum

The Organization of American States (OAS) this week held the 2nd Inter-American Dialogue of High-Level Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Authorities (MSMEs): “Public Policies to Enhance the Competitiveness, Innovation and Internationalization of MSMEs,” which offered the opportunity to create a space for dialogue between the public and private sectors in the region, and to exchange successful experiences.

“MSMEs account for most of the private sector and generate a significant percentage of the jobs, more than 70 percent in the countries of the region. However, their contribution to GDP remains low, showing the gap in productivity and competitiveness with respect to larger enterprises,” said the OAS Secretary of External Relations, Alfonso Quiñonez.

“Addressing the barriers that contribute to this gap has become one of the central elements of the development strategies of our countries," said Ambassador Quiñonez, during the inauguration of the event which was held on September 10 and 11 in New Orleans.

The aim of the meeting was to promote regional dialogue of senior officials on policies and programs to support the competitiveness and innovation of MSMEs and encourage the exchange of best practices that strengthen the sustainable development of the OAS Member States. The event was attended by ministers and officials from 30 Member States of the hemispheric organization and the leaders of 20 private institutions.

In another section of his address, Ambassador Quiñonez said: “According to the lessons of past experience, the high growth rates experienced by the economies of the region must be accompanied by public policies to strengthen two key aspects: the productivity of our economies and, especially, the distribution of the benefits of economic growth throughout all of society.”

For her part, the Minister of Production of Peru, Gladys Triveño, said the dialogue served "to see what kind of approaches that other countries have taken to solve problems that we all face."

Camilo Montes, Director of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of Colombia, said "MSMEs today are moving in a world that is changing, where knowledge, technology, investment and markets change daily.” Montes added, “Given this situation of a changing world, public policies must react, from those who define public policy, which is the government, to those who execute it, the government and its public-private partners.”

Meanwhile, Reginald Budhan, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce of Jamaica, said that “having the opportunity to share experiences and best practices on innovation among the countries in the Americas through a network is a valuable effort which provides policy makers in our countries with a wealth of breakthroughs and policy interventions to enhance the competitiveness of MSMEs.”

The event was organized by the Department of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism of the Executive Secretariat for Integral Development of the OAS; was held in the framework of the Annual Conference of the Association of Small Business Development Centers (ASBDC); and had the financial support of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-310/12