PRESS RELEASE: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to Recognize Leaders at Paraguay Microenterprise Forum, October 2008

Source: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Original press release available here.

WASHINGTON, June 3 – The Inter-American Development Bank will hold its annual competition for organizations that excel in promoting microenterprises in Latin America and the Caribbean. The awards will be presented at the 11th Microenterprise Forum, which will take place in Asuncion, Paraguay, October 8-10, 2008.

The IDB also announced that it opened the registration for the Microenterprise Forum, an event that traditionally attracts more than 1,000 participants representing government agencies, microfinance institutions, credit unions, commercial banks, foundations, credit rating agencies, business chambers, universities, think tanks and multilateral organizations.

This year’s Microenterprise Forum is being organized by the IDB’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), in collaboration with the Paraguayan government and with support from The Netherlands and other international donors.

Annual Awards

The IDB will give awards for excellence in microfinance to a regulated financial institution and to a non-regulated institution. This year the selection process will be based on evaluations of performance indicators from the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX), a non-profit that provides sources of data, benchmarking and monitoring tools on hundreds of microfinance institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The IDB will also present an award for excellence in enterprise development services to an organization that provides outstanding business solutions to boost the competitiveness of microenterprises, such as improving production, management, marketing or training. Candidates for this award should submit their applications before June 16.

A fourth prize for excellence in local entrepreneurship is open exclusively to Paraguayan microentrepreneurs, who must be nominated by local enterprise development organizations or microfinance institutions.

For more information on the awards, please contact Carlos Jimenez at cjimenez@iadb.org or (202) 623-1525.

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