Argentina will be hosting the 2017 Inter-American Forum on Microenterprise
El equipo de Finanzas participó en Washington en las reuniones del Fondo Multilateral de Inversiones del BID que apoya pymes y ONG.
The Chief of Cabinet of the Ministry of Finance, Pablo Quirno, and the Undersecretary of International Financial Relations, Martín Soto, participated this Thursday of the joint meeting of the Boards of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) in Washington. Within that framework, they discussed the Draft Agreement establishing MIF III.
The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), created in 1993, is one of the units of the IDB Group that designs and finances projects of the private sector with an innovative perspective. Since its creation, Argentina has contributed 28.3 million dollars to MIF and it has benefitted from 69 million dollars of non-refundable resources. In addition, it has received loans and capital investments (refundable resources) for 19 million dollars.
The MIF, in its 2016-2018 Business Plan, will work over three main strategic issues: Integrating Cities, Climate-Smart Agriculture, and Knowledge Economy. It will also include gender and diversity issues, as well as environmental and social sustainability, and will promote a favorable context for investments. Likewise, it will continue supporting small businesses and creating opportunities for vulnerable populations to mitigate poverty.
In addition, the next Inter-American Forum on Microenterprise (Foromic), organized by the MIF, will be held this year in Argentina. It is the most important annual event related to microfinance and business in the region and, after 18 years, it will take place in Argentina. The country hosted Foromic in 1999, a year after its creation.
It is important to consider that while MIF’s contributions are made by the Government, the main beneficiaries of technical cooperation and projects are micro, small, and medium enterprises and non-governmental agencies. Since 2016, MIF has approved projects for Argentina for more than 6 million dollars and it is likely that the country will benefit in the future from transactions for a higher amount than the one to be contributed for the replacement.