Santo Domingo, 25 February 2010 -- The Dominican Republic officially opened on Tuesday an UNCTAD-affiliated Empretec centre for the training and support of entrepreneurs, bringing the number of Empretec centres worldwide to 32. The programmes offered at such centres help with the creation and expansion of privately owned small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries -- businesses that lead to new jobs and new products and that help to foster to stable, broadbased economic growth.
More than 100 representatives from the Dominican Government, the country´s business community, and civic institutions attended the official opening ceremony at the CEI-RD (Instituto del Comercio Exterior y la Innovación Empresarial), where the centre is based. It was noted at the ceremony that the Dominican Republic´s National Plan for Systemic Competitiveness of 2007 calls for efforts to establish an entrepreneurial culture and for greater numbers of SMEs.
"Empretec provides practical tools to manage resources efficiently, enhance marketing efforts, and promote innovation in business," said Acelis Ángeles, Technical Deputy Director of CEI-RD, the investment and exports promotion agency of the Dominican Republic, during a speech at the event.
Tatiana Krylova, Head of the Enterprise Development Branch of UNCTAD, welcomed the new centre to the Empretec family. Other Empretec centres are spread through Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. They are managed by the Empretec programme team based at UNCTAD in Geneva.
Mrs. Krylova said the centre will be a milestone for promoting entrepreneurial culture in the Dominican Republic and will assist Dominican entrepreneurs in developing their abilities to create and expand businesses. She added that the centre also will support entrepreneurs in establishing business linkages with larger national and foreign companies, thus helping domestic SMEs to link into international value chains.
One of the keys to Empretec´s success is its "training of trainers," which multiplies entrepreneurship capacity in countries and increases the impact of the programme. During the ceremony, Ms. Krylova presented UNCTAD certificates to Xiomara Frias, Tamara Mera, and Roberto Perez, recognizing them as National Empretec Trainers who will work through the centre. They were instructed with the cooperation of trainers from Empretec Uruguay, which assisted in seven Entrepreneurship Training Workshops delivered to about 200 Dominican entrepreneurs.
The intention of Empretec, which is based on a methodology developed by David McClelland of Harvard University, is to help entrepreneurs master 10 competencies shown to be vital for success in establishing and expanding private businesses. The programme aims to help developing countries emulate the pattern in industrialized nations, where SMEs make up the majority of firms, provide the majority of employment, and serve as vigorous sources of new ideas and products.
