US Ambassador visits project to support women entrepreneurs in Santiago

Santiago, DR. – The US ambassador, Robin Bernstein, visited The Center for Support to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) of the Pontifical Catholic University Mother and Teacher (PUCMM), where she met business projects led by women that emerged thanks to the Female Entrepreneurship Program.

This initiative, carried out in partnership with the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and MSMEs (MICM), seeks to support women in a unique way to develop their entrepreneurship projects, taking into account that 51.3% of the country’s micro and small businesses They are led by this genre, according to MICM data.

In this meeting, the US ambassador can see the business projects of María Victoria Brito, Artehelado, Noelia Ruiz, Miel Noelia, Mabel Payero, Organic Jasper, Elida Almonte, Brownies World, and Claudia Re, Da Fare. These women’s five successful ventures were established thanks to the support of the PUCMM MSMEs Center.

“I feel delighted to be here and see these projects, and it is in the interest of the United States to support funds for the development of micro, small and medium enterprises, especially those that are being run by women,” Bernstein said.

On the other hand, Ignacio Méndez, deputy minister of Promotion of MSMEs of the MICM, said that the Mipymes sector represents 39.6% of the Gross Domestic Product of the country. Thanks to the support received from the government, these companies have increased their sales by more than 40 million dollars a year.

While Cecilia Pérez Estrella, director of the PUCMM Mipymes Center on the Santiago campus, reported that since the center’s operation began in 2017, there have been more than 500 business consultancies, around 2,000 people trained and the formalization of 30 companies was supported.

The director of International Relations of the PUCMM, José Miguel Hernández, Iluminada Severino, director of Social Innovation and Business Development of the PUCMM and representatives of the US Embassy, ​also took part in this movement on Thursday, November 21 in the Octagonal Classroom 21 of the Postgraduate Headquarters Building.