InsPYraME UE, the first project with a business focus, within the framework of the trade agreement reached between Mercosur and the European Union (EU), which seeks to provide support to Uruguayan micro and small enterprises (MSMEs) to gain access to the European market and better benefit from the agreement.
The project is implemented by the Chamber of Commerce and Services (CNCS) and the Eurochamber Uruguay and financed by the European Union. According to the EU ambassador in Uruguay, Karl-Otto König, the program "will literally be a walking stick towards the European market".
The initiative is aimed at Uruguayan MSMEs, mainly those led by women and young entrepreneurs and also with a strong emphasis on companies in the interior of the country.
According to the president of the CNCS, Julio Lestido, the program "will give the necessary tools to these companies to enter this large market of 778 million inhabitants that opens to all of us. However, he warned that "in order to take advantage of the benefits" of the trade agreement between Mercosur and the EU, "we have to be prepared" so he called on Uruguayan MSMEs to approach the project.
For his part, the President of the European Parliament, Luis Martínez, said that the institution "is more active and thriving than ever in its role as a reference point for business and investment between Europe and Uruguay".
In this connection, he said that InsPYraME has three main objectives. The first is to establish public-private dialogue roundtables to provide recommendations to the political sector; the second is based on strengthening the capacities of Uruguayan MSMEs; and the third is related to collaborate in training, transmission of knowledge and information on the characteristics and possibilities of the Mercosur-EU agreement for MSMEs in the interior, those led by women and young entrepreneurs.
The purpose of the project is to train companies, "to help them to have good results, better capacities, to be more competitive and to be able to face this agreement and the possibilities it offers in a better way, more solid, with more possibilities, with more knowledge and that implies the possibility of competing successfully in this demanding market," said Martínez.
Throughout the 30 months of the program, 18 workshops will be held in each department of the country, training, technical assistance and thematic investment forums based on certain industries and relevant sectors of the Uruguayan economic activity.
"The preparation has to start now, tomorrow would be too late, too late," said Karl-Otto König and added that "to benefit from the opening (of the European market) you have to prepare before and you have to be aware that it is necessary to process adjustments and adapt to the new requirements" of a market that he described as "demanding".
For his part, the Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, Omar Paganini, stressed that the agreement between blocs represents a "concrete and certain possibility of facilitating the access of Uruguayan companies to the European market" since the EU "will waive customs duties on 92% of what is collected today".
He also indicated that 77% of Uruguayan exporting companies are MSMEs but that in value they only represent 7%, so "the possibility of developing them" is "strategic for this government," he concluded.
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