Finance minister leads delegation to Chile
FINANCE and Planning Minister Dr Peter Phillips left the island on Saturday for Santiago de Chile, to attend FOROMIC Chile 2015, where he and the other members of the Jamaican delegation will participate in the handing over ceremony for FOROMIC Jamaica 2016, scheduled for Montego Bay, Jamaica.
In April 2014, the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the Inter-American Development Bank Group, designated Jamaica as the host of FOROMIC 2016.
While in Santiago de Chile, Dr Phillips and key members of the Jamaican delegation are scheduled to meet with the General Manager designate of the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), Brigit Helms.
The Inter-American Microenterprise Forum (FOROMIC) is one of the most important marketplaces and conferences focusing on micro, small, and medium enterprise financing and development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The forum brings together delegations from financial and microfinance institutions, associations of micro entrepreneurs, government agencies, Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), international organisations, academia among others that are able to showcase innovative efforts towards financial inclusion.
FOROMIC provides an essential meeting place for networking and business deals between private sector investors and microfinance institutions, which make the conference one of their primary business events of the calendar year. The event will increase Jamaica’s visibility on the international finance stage while providing local businesses the opportunity to interact with international financiers as well as possible international business partners.
In 2014, when the forum was held in Ecuador, it attracted 1,300 participants from 44 countries. FOROMIC 2015 currently underway in Chile is expected to attract 1,500 participants. The enthusiasm building for FOROMIC Jamaica 2016 is projected to push the registration to as much as 1,750 participants.
Dr Phillips is accompanied by the Governor of the Bank of Jamaica Brian Wynter; President of the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), Milverton Reynolds; Financial Secretary Devon Rowe; Technical Advisor to the Minister, Helen McIntosh; and Head, IMF Coordination and Implementation Unit Judith Green.
The team will return to Jamaica on Thursday, October 29.