DINAMICA: a financial program for entrepreneurs committed to regional innovation

Tegucigalpa, June 22, 2016. - The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), together with the German KfW Development Bank and the European Union, through its Investment Facility for Latin America (LAIF), launched the Initiative, "Developing Business Ideas and Accelerating Central American MSMEs (DINAMICA).”

The program, which is specially designed to promote entrepreneurship, innovation and responsible financing, aims to stimulate and diversify the economies of the region’s countries in order to generate employment.

Beneficiaries of this initiative include the Dynamic Business Development Centers, financial institutions that are part of CABEI’s Financial Intermediary network and MSMEs affiliated with these centers, which are located in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

The initiative has funds available amounting to EUR 50 million from KfW and CABEI; the funds will be channeled through the CABEI regional intermediary financial institutions. In addition, it has EUR 3.8 million in technical assistance resources from the European Union’s Latin American Investment Facility.

Support for entrepreneurship and innovation is part of the SICA 2012-2017 Entrepreneurship Strategy, which was established to foster an entrepreneurial culture from a regional, integral and interinstitutional standpoint. The Strategy is also in line with the Financial Intermediation and Development Finance focus area of the CABEI 2015-2019 Institutional Strategy, "Integrating Sustainable Development and Competitiveness."

The launch was held in the framework of First Regional Meeting of MSME Attention Centers, which took place from June 21 to 23 in the city of Tegucigalpa. The regional meeting was organized by the Regional Center for MSME Promotion (CENPROMYPE), the Secretary General of the Central American Integration System (SICA), the Honduran Ministry of Economic Development and CABEI.