UNCTAD, in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of the Dominican Republic, organized a workshop on entrepreneurship policy from 11-12 March 2016, in order to finalize an action plan to implement the National Entrepreneurship Strategy.
The Vice-minister of SME Development, Mr. Ignacio A. Méndez Fernández, opened the workshop, organized by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in collaboration with UNCTAD.
He illustrated the results achieved so far, recalling the importance of launch of the National Entrepreneurship Strategy in 2014, and stressed the need to set deadlines to monitor and evaluate the progress of the entrepreneurship policy implementation.
As an outcome of the workshop, five different working groups were created, which will continue to meet until mid-April in order to finalize the Action Plan focusing on the main areas of the UNCTAD's Entrepreneurship Policy Framework.
Among the main issues that were identified as priority actions, are:
Creation of a public-private sector alliance based on the Ecuadorian model.
Design of a communication campaign to promote the initiatives being implemented.
Creation of a commission for proposing amendments to the National Entrepreneurship Act under discussion in the Parliament.
Preparation of a study to integrate entrepreneurship and SME issues into the existing Labor Law.
Generation of financial mechanisms to reduce the risks of co-investment.
Provision of entrepreneurship training to school teachers and university professors.
Utilization of open source tools for SMEs.
