She Trades Argentina was launched yesterday December 13. The event was organized by the Argentine Investment and Trade Promotion Agency and the International Trade Centre (ITC) – the World Trade Organization the United Nations' (Geneva’s Headquarters) specialized agency.
The event welcomed different businesswomen from Córdoba Province, who were accompanied by Carolina Benito – representing the Entrepreneurs Association of the Central Region of Villa María (in Spanish, AERCA) –, Marcela Cerutti – representing the Association of Food Industries of the Río Cuarto Region –, ProCórdoba’s General Manager Roberto Rossotto, and ProCórdoba’s Cooperation and International Relations Department Manager Viviana Arias.
Several other businesswomen and representatives from national and international organizations also participated in the event, in support of the initiative. The following panel presentations were carried out: Creating Inclusive Value Chains. Tools for Export and Commitments of the Civil Society. This was led by our Agency’s International Relations Manager.
During the event, “the guiding thread was to set the record straight that the encouragement and enablement of entrepreneur and exporter women is important for both national and international economies and therefore requires the support of all sectors of society, not only from the state but from civil society as a whole.”
It should be highlighted that ProCórdoba, being an export promotion agency, offers this service to Cordobese companies to provide them insight into the current progress of these studies, as well as a portfolio of programs developed to raise awareness about these issues.
In this respect, it is worth noting that our Agency took part in 2015 in the Women Vendors Exhibition and Forum held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, an event that was organized by the International Trade Center. The following year the ITC offered ProCórdoba to act in the capacity of Verifying Organization for the recently launched platform “She Trades”, which seeks to connect a million WOBS (Women-Owned Businesses) women in the international market by the year 2020, through a web app and platform.
To strengthen this line of work, efforts are made to spread awareness about Interamerican Development Bank ConnectAmericas’ “ConnectAmericas for Women” platform, aimed at women entrepreneurs from Latin America and the Caribbean, thus generating, together with international organizations, promotion opportunities for SMEs, through access to digital platforms and virtual tools.
This year, a meeting was held with Cordobese women who either own or are responsible for Cordobese export companies, to discuss these issues. ProCórdoba later participated in the national presentation of the “Women Exporters” program by the AAICI, which was held in Buenos Aires. Both agencies presented these guidelines at the “Working Breakfast: Women and International Trade” carried out in September in Córdoba City.
At the closing of the event, ProCórdoba’s General Manager thanked the ITC for their invitation to participate and referred to the relationship that our Agency and the ITC have developed over the last few years, working together in different events and initiatives. He also thanked manager Viviana Arias for her and her team’s work, our agency’s women directors, and companies and organizers which participated in the event, highlighting the program’s importance for economy and to increase equality. Finally, on behalf of the Agency, he made the commitment to continue carrying out initiatives that contribute to the program’s objectives.
ProCórdoba’s Cooperation and International Relations Department has produced a report entitled “Women and International Trade”, which provides information about all the action carried out in favor of the empowerment of women entrepreneurs. To read the report click here.
For more information about this program, contact
María José Calvo
Cooperation and International Relations
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel.: (0351) 4343066/67/68 Ext. 402
