business

IDB funding progam underway

LA PRENSA

Leaders:Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the IDB (left), and President Martín Torrijos at the presentation of Impulso Panamá. 1047219

The government-sponsored Impulso Panamá program has received 137 applications for financing since its inauguration on June 2 of this year, and two businesses have already forged links with the program.

The program was designed to contribute to increasing income and improving national welfare by increasing competitivity and productivity. The program has the backing of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and operates through two trusts: Procompetitividad and, beginning in 2009, Findec.

The non-reimbursable Procompetitividad funds are for techical assistance, quality certification, business alliances and innovation and can be used for travelling abroad to learn about new technologies or for training. Indigenous businesses will receive 100 percent financing, exporters 70 percent and the rest 50 percent. Findec will fund commercial financial institutions that offer credit directly to businesses.

Impulso Panamá breaks with traditional schemes in that the state will act only as facilitator, while private businesses themselves will define the type of support they need to enhance their competitiveness and productivity.

The program has a total of $97 million in funds for its first phase of four years, 52.5 percent of which has been provided by the Inter-American Development Bank, 38.1 percent by the government of Panama, and 7.8 percent by the private sector. The Japanese government has provided 1.6 percent of the funding.