El Salvador is the country with the greatest progress in Latin America in the model of public-academic alliances to provide services to micro and small businesses (mypes), stated Paul Steiner, president of the National Commission for Micro and Small Businesses (Conamype).
In that sense, the official reported that the country has 14 Micro and Small Business Development Center (Cdmype), which operate through an agreement between Conamype and various universities, and have benefits such as business advice, technology advice information and communications (ICT), financial advice, training and technical advice.
“We are strengthening the Cdmype network, which are centers where we have public-academic alliances with universities. We already have 14. In all of Latin America, we are the country that has made the greatest progress in the concept of public-academic alliances to provide services to MSEs,” said Steiner.
Of the total centers, 12 provide all types of services and 2 are specialized. Among the specialized ones is the Don Bosco University, which trains in industrialization, and the Gerardo Barrios University of San Miguel, which specializes in digitalization and electronic commerce.
On the other hand, Steiner mentioned that they also work with exporting MSEs and, in that sense, an inter-institutional agreement was recently signed to strengthen this work and better position local products and services.
“Last Friday we had an export forum, and we signed an agreement between Conamype, the Foreign Ministry and Invest, three institutions that work to promote the exports of mypes. The Foreign Ministry supports the trading houses with its consuls, Invest helps identify opportunities and Conamype trains the MSEs,” the official pointed out.