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In the framework of the EU-CELAC Summit on January 24-27 at Santiago, Chile, the
AL-INVEST IV Programme together with Eurochile organised a business summit with
an EU-CELAC matchmaking event and a workshop on ‘Exchange of experience between
Latin America and Europe: What we have learned from the experiences of
development and crisis’.
The AL-INVEST programme is one of the most relevant regional economic
cooperation programmes of the European Commission in Latin America. The main
goal of the AL-INVEST IV programme is to promote social cohesion by supporting
Latin American SMEs in their consolidation and internationalisation, and by
sharing innovation and knowledge, and creating economic relations with their
European counterparts. AL-INVEST IV covers all 18 Latin American countries and
the entire European Union. The total investment of the programme amounts to €62
million, of which €50 million is financed by the European Commission.
The fourth part of the programme was carried out by three sub-regional consortia
of business organisations belonging to three different areas of Latin America:
Central America-Cuba-Mexico (CAMC), Andean Region (RA) and Mercosur Chile and
Venezuela (MCV). The three consortia have the support of the horizontal services
provided by the Consortium of Coordination and Services, led by EUROCHAMBRES.
A Unique Platform
The Business Matchmaking Event EU-CELAC is a unique platform to gain better
mutual understanding regarding business partners, innovation and cooperation
between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean. Around 450
bilateral meetings were programmed during the matchmaking event.
Business-support organisations and companies from 36 European and Latin American
countries took part in the B2B meetings with the aim of promoting cooperation
projects. The participants included organisations supporting the private sector
such as chambers of commerce and industry, industrial organisations, agencies
promoting trade and investment, financial institutions and business
associations, as well as companies. The event aimed at promoting economic
cooperation between business organisations and companies from Latin America, the
Caribbean and the European Union. Regional collaboration in areas surrounding
joint ventures, exchange of experiences between business support organisations,
technical cooperation and trade, was addressed in the framework of the
internationalisation of companies. During the Summit, representatives of the
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, United Nations together
with the AL-INVEST IV Programme and EUROCHAMBRES presented the result of a
survey on policy proposals for SMEs support from the private sector point of
view.
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