Entrepreneurship: the key to development in Mesoamerica

Within the Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Development in Mesoamerica project, EDEM, co-financed by Colombia and the European Union, the First Meeting of Entrepreneurs in Mesoamerica will be held in Bogotá and Cali, in which delegates from these countries will make technical visits will allow to define and build new action plans that promote the promotion of regional entrepreneurship.

Within the framework of the technical visits, successful model participants and entrepreneurship networks promoted by Colombian entities such as the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, the National Apprenticeship Service - SENA, Parquesoft Colombia, Universidad del Rosario, Confecámaras, Compensar, Universidad Piloto e Innpulsa, on issues related to the development of entrepreneurial skills and the evolution of the support scheme for early stage entrepreneurs.

It is expected that with the inputs of the meeting, the implementation of policies and strategies that promote national and territorial entrepreneurship ecosystems will be facilitated, methodologies, tools and instruments will be built, both in public and private institutions, to improve the provision of services, promote and develop entrepreneurship and carry out an adequate management of financial instruments for this purpose.

Other activities that will be carried out during this day are:

• Working sessions articulated with the SENA Entrepreneurs Fund, the Aldea de Innpulsa model, the Chambers of Commerce of Bogotá, Caldas and Casanare to deal, among others, with the introduction of financial schemes for entrepreneurship, challenges in the dynamization of territorial schemes, as well as the implementation of financial instruments.
• To get to know some non-financial instruments to support the entrepreneur, such as the Apps.co program of the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies, the Héroes Fest de Innpulsa entrepreneurship festival and Colombian experiences on the entrepreneurs' union. of ASEC- ANDI.
• A first step will be taken in the elaboration of a plan to boost the ecosystems and the territorial networks of entrepreneurship in the countries that are part of the project.
• In Cali, the delegations will learn about the experience of the Regional Entrepreneurship Network of Valle del Cauca; example of national success, as well as the Valle-E entrepreneurship program, the entrepreneurship strategy of the Valle government, and they will receive information on the methodology of measurement indicators developed by the Local System of Business Development of the city of Santiago de Cali
• Finally, the Fondéate program will be socialized; a financing instrument for companies at an early age, the entrepreneurship program of cultural industries of the ICESI university and the entrepreneurial model of the Javeriana University. Likewise, plans will be adjusted to boost the ecosystems and territorial networks of entrepreneurship in each of the participating countries.

This meeting is one of the results of the Regional Program of Cooperation with Mesoamerica (PRCM), as a strategy of South-South Cooperation of the Colombian Government, whose execution is coordinated by APC-Colombia, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and co-financed in this stage with resources from the European Union, with the objective of strengthening the national strategies and entrepreneurship policies of El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, Belize and the Dominican Republic.