Mitur brings together public-private institutions to advance in the formalization and financing of MSMEs in Pedernales and the Enriquillo region.
The first working group was headed by the vice minister of MITUR and executive director of the Pedernales Tourism Project, Carlos Peguero.
With social inclusion as a priority in the new Pedernales tourism project, a first meeting was held in search of solutions for the formalization and financing of the MSMEs operating in that province and the Enriquillo region.
The working group is integrated by the Ministry of Tourism (MITUR) together with representatives of government institutions, banks, universities, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation for Development (AECID).
The meeting for the Formulation and Development of the Formalization and Access to Financing Program for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) of the Pedernales Province and the Enriquillo Region, was headed by the Vice Minister of International Cooperation and Executive Director of the Pedernales Project, Carlos Peguero, at the Mitur headquarters and was held in preparation for the take-off of the Tourism Plan at the end of next year with the inauguration of the new cruise port being built in Cabo Rojo.
Peguero emphasized that, in addition to providing training and generating jobs for the inhabitants of Pedernales and the four provinces that make up the Enriquillo region, as part of this social inclusion, the need arises to formalize and at the same time assist with financing these micro, small and medium enterprises that operate there, and that they will not disappear.
“Visualizing what will be the future of Pedernales, with large companies that will be in the hotel zone, we cannot neglect the work developed by small businesses, which if we do not give them the proper attention could disappear with the economic boost that the sector is going to have”, he considered.
He added that the interest and concern of President Luis Abinader is that this sector can survive, grow and be an integral part of all the development that Pedernales and the Enriquillo region will have from the beginning of operation of the new cruise port.
Erick Dorrejo, director of the Directorate of Development Policies of the Border Zone of the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development (MEPyD), and Roberto Verrier, coordinator, were in charge of the presentation of the Business Strengthening Program (Profem), an initiative whose objective is to coordinate strategies to strengthen the business development of the MSMEs of the border region with access to financing and increased production.
The interventions at the meeting, accompanied by presentations on the situation prevailing in the Enriquillo region, focused on eight components of the Program, which seek to promote the development of these MSMEs such as: Identification, Formalization, Training, Technical Assistance, Financing, Markets, Digital Economy and Associativity.
From their respective institutions, the participants expressed their willingness to work together with Mitur.
the willingness to work together with Mitur for the development and formalization of MSMEs, from their initiatives and programs implemented in the four provinces of Enriquillo, as well as the assistance and training carried out by the PUCMM, INFOTEP, DGII, PROMIPYME and IDECOOP.
Angel Matos, deputy director of Management and Business Development of PROMIPYME, affirmed the entity’s commitment to ”work in financing, in training together with Infotep and in technical assistance in terms of our area, which is financial education”.
The official cited the issues of the digital economy, handicrafts and the lack of gastronomy businesses as among the main challenges to be faced for the province of Pedernales and in view of the future tourism project.
Banreservas executives Víctor Mercedes and Juan Mustafá, general manager of Banco Nacional de las Exportaciones (BANDEX) participated in the round table, while welcoming the Program, they guaranteed financing for small and medium enterprises and projects in the region, highlighting the importance of their formalization and compliance with regulations.
On the subject, Vice Minister Peguero advocated for the reflection and flexibility of the financial sector in the financing of the captive market of companies that will demand agricultural products.
At the meeting, the Southern Regional Director of INFOTEP, Luis Beltré Mesa, informed that as a result of the courses in which 596 young people from the region were certified last April, some 456 submitted resumes at the last job fair organized by the Ministries of Tourism, Labor and Infotep, to be inserted in different areas.
He said that some 1,150 training actions are being planned for this year for the Enriquillo region alone, out of a total of 3,605, since this will be the area that will supply the large Pedernales project.
Manuel Alba Cano, acting general coordinator of the Technical Cooperation Office of the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation for Development (AECID) and Patricia Jiménez, coordinator of Alliances and Resource Mobilization of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), were present at the meeting in favor of the initiative of formalization and financing of MSMEs within the framework of the Pedernales Tourism Project.
