San Antonio, TX (August 31, 2012) – Robert McKinley, Associate Vice President for Economic Development at UTSA, Cliff Paredes, Director of the International Trade Center and Minerva Garcia, International Business Consultant for the International Trade Center will be conducting the first module of the Counselor and Director Certificate Training in Panama City, Panama September 19-21, 2012.
The Counselor and Director Certificate Training is part of the International SBDC Expansion Initiative that the Institute for Economic Development and the International Trade Center, with the support of the Department of State, have been involved in since 2003. The Initiative helps countries in the Americas develop Small Business Development Center (SBDC) networks modeled on the US SBDC Network. The training is the first of the certificate training’s four modules.
“The work we are doing with the International SBDC Expansion Initiative dove-tails perfectly with President Obama’s Small Business Network of the Americas (SBNA) initiative, and is helping to make the initiative a reality. Panama is a country that is poised to take advantage of this high-level training, and to create economic impact domestically and internationally”, said Cliff Paredes, Director of the International Trade Center.
Giselle Burillo, Minister of the Panamanian AMPYME (Autoridad de la Micro, Pequeña y Mediana Empresa) will be participating, as will a representative from the El Salvadoran SBDC association CONAMYPE (Comisión Nacional de la Micro y Pequeña Empresa, El Salvador) who will discuss how they successfully completed the training and developed their own network of SBDCs to assist small and medium-sized businesses. Representatives from the public, private and academic sectors will also participate.
The goal of the SBDC Counselor and Director Certificate Training is to transfer the SBDC model methodology and train professionals on how to manage and operate an economic impact-producing center. For more information on this project, visit http://sbdcglobal.com/internationalsbdcs.html.
