The Multilateral Investment Fund announced the approval today of a $5 million grant to promote business alliances and partnerships that will enhance private sector competitiveness in seven countries of Central America and the Caribbean.
The resources will help fund 32 pilot projects, chosen on a competitive basis, that will promote competitiveness of around 800 small- and medium-sized businesses in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
The program will be carried out by the Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas (INCAE), which will also contribute $5 million. Other donors will contribute $3.4 million.
The business alliance projects will encourage partnerships involving the private sector, nongovernment organizations and government. Best practices and lessons learned from the pilot projects will be carefully analyzed and widely disseminated, enabling successes to be repeated elsewhere.
The Multilateral Investment Fund, an independent fund administered by the Inter-American Development Bank, is dedicated to promoting private sector development in Latin America and the Caribbean through grants and investments.