As part of Europe Day’s celebrations, AGEXPORT recognized the joint work done with the European Union in educating and strengthening capabilities of 1,200 small and medium Guatemalan enterprises during 2016 and 2017 through the AL-INVEST 5.0 program. This strong alliance also made possible the selection of Guatemala as host country for the European Union-Latin America Business Forum and AL-INVEST 5.0 Annual Meeting to take place this June.
During 2016 and 2017, the European Union has been a key partner for Guatemala and helped AGEXPORT in supporting more than 1,200 agriculture, manufacturing and services SMEs on different topics, including trade promotion.
The European Union represents a key partner for AGEXPORT as it complements our vision of “shaping Guatemala as an exporting country”. On Europe Day’s celebration, AGEXPORT reinforces its commitment with the European Union to continue working in developing Guatemalan SMEs. We currently work on two joint programs with the EU: AL-INVEST 5.0 and “Centroamerica Exporta”, a regional program to develop the private sector’s exporting activities in the region. These programs will continue generating social and economic development through small and medium local and regional companies, said Mr. Moisés Mérida, AGEXPORT’s International Partnerships Director.
To strengthen trade and cooperation relations between Guatemala and the European Union, the country was selected to host the next European Union-Latin America Business Forum and the AL-INVEST 5.0 Annual Meeting, to be held between 13 and 15 June 2018. These events are co-organized by the European Commission, Eurochambers, CAINCO and AGEXPORT; and would gather in Guatemala all European and Latin American partners of the AL-INVEST 5.0 program.
The “Business Forum” is a meeting that joins more than 150 business leaders of the European Union and Latin America to share experiences and ideas to close ties between public and private institutions and take actions to improve the competitiveness of small and medium companies, said Mr. Mérida.
On the other hand, the AL-INVEST 5.0 Annual Meeting would gather execution partners of this program and Latin American organizations supported by it to share AL-INVEST 5.0’s main achievements, as well as building strong alliances and a regional network of SMEs.
During the Annual Meeting, AL-INVEST 5.0 would also share some success stories of activities funded by the program, promote future actions with its different partners, strengthen its inter-institutional network and exchange achievements with other European Union programs, stated Mr. Mérida.
