Policymaking key to MSMEs growth in Latin America and The Caribbean

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From Jordan, the publishers will travel to the Riyadh International Book Fair, taking place from October 1 – 10, where visitors and the publishing fraternity will both have the opportunity to browse and buy 238 titles by 21 of EPA’s member publishers.

These will cover a wide range of topics and genres and will be made available to new readership communities via EPA’s Manassah platform at both events.

The Manassah platform was launched to offer key networking opportunities to those EPA members who have less than 20 published works under their hat and are unable to represent themselves at local, regional and international book fairs.

Over the years, the platform has connected small- and medium-sized Emirati publishers to a wide audience and businneses in the region and beyond.

Rashid Al Kous, Executive Director of EPA, said: "Our participation in these prestigious international events not only creates great opportunities for Emirati publishers to showcase and popularise Emirati writing, but also boosts Sharjah's efforts to support the local publishing industry.

EPA will also participate in the publishers conference that will be held on the sidelines of the book fair in Riyadh, to exchange ideas with industry stakeholders on ways we can boost Arab publishing, which has been impacted due to the pandemic.

Additionally, we will take the opportunity to highlight the support and key incentives offered by Sharjah to advance local, regional and global publishers.

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ABU DHABI, 22nd September, 2021 The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digitalisation within Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across Latin America and the Caribbean, a region that holds tremendous potential for industrial transformation.

However, several challenges, such as structural barriers to technology adoption, social inequality, and a lack of financial resources still need to be addressed.

These are some of the key findings from the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit’s (#GMIS2021) Digital Series on "Harnessing Policymaking to Bolster Innovation and the Digital Transformation of Latin American MSMEs".

The discussions highlighted the timeliness of the digital transformation of MSMEs and how critical they are to today’s globalised economy, particularly within the region, where they account for roughly 99.

5 percent of businesses, 60 percent of jobs and 25 percent of regional GDP, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.

LI Yong, Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), spoke of MSMEs as severely affected by the global economic recession resulting from the pandemic, which exposed a clear digital divide within and among countries.

"We are working closely with Latin American countries to increase access to advanced manufacturing technologies.

We, as an international community, can and must go further.

We must accelerate our joint efforts to empower middle-income countries to deploy frontier technologies for transformative effect and achieve inclusive and sustainable industrial development.

" Even though digitalisation of industries was in place before the pandemic, the crisis has hastened that process, promoting the development of innovative solutions in the form of products, processes, and business models.

Despite this, roughly 2.

7 million MSMEs in the region disappeared in 2020 due to reduced access to markets and value chains and low rates of digital and financial inclusion, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of ECLAC, said technology adoption has proven to be essential to drive social and economic resilience across Latin America and the Caribbean, however, countries need greater government support and regional cooperation to enable digital transformation.

"In contrast to developed countries or emerging economies of Asia, the countries of our region have not reaped the benefits of the successive great waves of technological transformation, particularly the digital revolution that began in 1990 and the nascent 4.

0 era.

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''The productivity of the MSMEs reach only 10 percent of larger companies in the region compared to 66 percent in Europe.

Progress will require regional cooperation such as the facilitation of e-commerce, and the flow of crossborder data.

Likewise greater cooperation in digital matters can also promote better institutions at the national level and help define common principles and guidelines to drive forward digital transformation.

" In Costa Rica, increasing access to internet connectivity and strengthening public-private collaboration to promote digitisation of MSMEs have been a key priority for the government over the past