Project Name：Project to Strengthen Capacity to Support Development of MSMEs

Project status：Projects in Operation

Cooperating Country：South America, Paraguay

Project Description：

The number of micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises in Paraguay exceeds 250,000, accounting for 61 percent of the total workforce and having a certain impact on the economic development of Paraguay. However, the current lack of business management capabilities and technology in Paraguay’s MSMEs has led to poor operating results. In 2010, MSMEs accounted for only 10 percent of national sales revenue. In order to improve the performance of MSMEs in Paraguay and enhance the functions of the relevant consultation mechanism, the main tasks of the project include: 1. Assisting the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Paraguay in conducting surveys of key industries; 2. Completing the policy planning of consultation for MSMEs; 3. Cooperating with key industry associations in Paraguay to establish consultation courses combining Paraguay’s resources and Taiwan's advantages; and 4. Conducting individual consultations for suppliers.

Project introduction video:
Pequeño pero Maravilloso


En la Pasarela de Mis Sueños - Proyecto de Fortalecimiento para las Mipymes del Paraguay

Implementation Start Date：2019-01-01

Implementation End Date：2023-12-31

Project Objectives：

To assist Paraguay in upgrading the operational performance of micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises and upgrading the functions of the relevant consultation mechanism.
1. Government: Establish a national enterprise information collection mechanism and industry consultation policy.
2. Enterprise consultation mechanism: Combine public and private sector resources to plan business management and professional technical consultation courses.
3. Individual enterprises: Provide consulting services for key enterprises.

Executing Agency：

Taiwan Technical Mission in the Republic of Paraguay / Ministry of Industry and Commerce (Paraguay) / Faculty of Economics, National University of Asunción (Paraguay) 

Current Progress：

To the end of December 2023, the following works had been carried out by our project:
1. Designed the mechanism of collecting information from SME Paraguayan, as well as the policy to support them: Assisted MIC to analyze the structure of Paraguayan industries, and conduct meetings with stakeholders; chose four key industries to be counseled.
2. Provided individual business diagnosis and counseling for 725 manufacturers. 
3. Organized professional enterprise management program, provided 5 trainings for seeded teachers.
4. Organized 4 National SME competitions.
5. Assisted local textile industry in providing courses in business management and dress designing for 189 manufacturers; assisted 25 manufactures in promoting  Moda Sostenible; counseled 4 manufacturers in introducing digital proofing, and increased their revenue by 15.9%. 
6. Assited dairy industry in introducing producing management system to 2 cooperatives with 60 dairy farmers to increase their revenue by 56.17%, and introduced IoT techniques to improve producing process of quesos in 2023.
7. Assist the Paraguayan Apparel Industry (Asociación Industrial de Confeccionistas del Paraguay) to promote online sales of Paraguayan products through livestreaming.
8. Assist the Centro Yerbatero Paraguayo to supporting Paraguayan companies in the development of new Yerba Mate-based products, as well as in the development of Packaging for a better presentation of their products.
9. Established  2 SBDC in Asuncion and Encanarcion.

Project Contact：Elisa, Yu-chi CHANG

Phone：+886-2-28886051

E-mail：yc.chang@icdf.org.tw

Projected Benefits：

Upgrade the Paraguayan consultation mechanism. At the end of the project, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the mechanism have the capacity to provide consulting services to 150 enterprises each year.

Mission：Taiwan Technical Mission in the Republic of Paraguay