The funds, channeled through the so-called Mipymes Support Facility Program, have been delivered from August 2020 to date to four financial institutions.
The Central American Bank for Economic Integration ( CABEI ) reported this Tuesday that it disbursed in the last year 61 million dollars to support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises ( MSMEs ) in Panama , which has protected nearly a thousand jobs in the country.
The funds, channeled through the so-called Mipymes Support Facility Program, have been delivered from August 2020 to date to four local financial institutions, the regional body said in a public statement .
This program "has made a wide variety of products available to the financial sector, such as the technical assistance fund, a program of partial credit guarantees at no cost to intermediary banks and their clients, as well as donations in the form of seed capital, providing to the economic recovery of Panama."
It also provides a response to the demand for resources from the financial sector to expand the coverage of MSMEs and that they have sufficient liquidity to respond to short-term demands.
The sectors that can take advantage of this support program are tourism, industry, provision of services and agri-food, among others.
"Panama has a strategic partner that supports it to face the health and economic crisis, in the case of the MSMEs sector, CABEI has provided options to access working and investment capital that allows them to reactivate and boost their businesses "said the president of the regional institution, Dante Mossi.
The leader of CABEI invited companies to approach the institution's allied financial institutions "to make use of these resources under favorable conditions."
This CABEI Facility has been accessed in Panama by Banco Internacional de
Costa Rica, SA (BICSA) for 15 million dollars; Savings Bank for 10 million dollars; Banco Aliado SA for 6 million dollars; and Global Bank for $ 30 million, according to official information.
The president of CABEI said last July in a conference with journalists from Panama that the institution calculated that it would disburse this year between 400 to 500 million dollars to the country, which has approved more than 1,160 million dollars for water projects, infrastructure, health and research.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Panama collapsed 17.9% in 2020 and 8.5% in the first quarter of this year, while unemployment more than doubled and reached 18.5% and informality exceeded 52%, due to of the ongoing pandemic.
SOURCE: EFE