Santo Domingo, Nov 18 (EFE) .- Entrepreneurs are the ones who are going to change society, according to the Dominican deputy minister of Fomento a las Mipymes, Ignacio Méndez, since they have the attitude needed to do so, according to an interview with Efe for the celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week.

The Dominican Republic is one of 160 countries that, since the last Monday and until this Sunday, celebrates this event that is organized annually and simultaneously with the aim of connecting entrepreneurs with potential collaborators, mentors and investors.

A week of "a lot of effervescence" for Méndez, who finds in entrepreneurs that engine of change thanks to a proactive attitude that leads them to "ask less for politicians and to empower themselves more "in the face of existing problems.

Much progress has been made in the country in this matter in the last five years thanks to the articulation of the National Network of Entrepreneurship, which allowed "to organize an ecosystem", since until then "each one went by his side", and create a regulation, the Law of Entrepreneurship, agreed with the actors implied.

With this base already implemented, progress has been made and weeks like this one are organized "that allow us to show what each one is doing", and expose cases of success, something "very important in the Dominican Republic to get more people to join the challenge of entrepreneurship and break myths "that discourage start-up of new projects," he said. official.

This is to demonstrate "that there is no reason to be born with surnames", since the important thing is "the idea and its execution", he said.

It is also necessary to show to learn what mistakes not to commit and to know that, although "failure must be respected", then "there may be another opportunity elsewhere and we, as a government, are in the obligation to give these alternatives. "

For this, the Dominican entrepreneur has the Mipymes centers, which provide advice on how to execute their ideas, the accompaniment necessary to prepare the financing, or provide help with digital and technological tools, among other supports.

Although "much progress has been made" in the issue of financing and "banks no longer get bad (nervous) when they hear the word" entrepreneur ", that is one of the pending issues in the struggle to support entrepreneurship, Méndez acknowledged, also referred to the incubation of companies and mentoring as aspects in which it is necessary to continue moving forward.

However, the biggest challenge, and that is common in several countries Latin American, is that entrepreneurs develop projects that involve more job creation, since there are many small businesses that generate few jobs, explained the vice minister.

"It is about fostering job creation" and also linking entrepreneurship to innovation, since "this added value is what gives it meaning" and allows differentiate from the rest, Méndez said.

The Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) agenda in the Caribbean country includes more than 30 activities between competitions, workshops, talks and conferences, which will take place in Santo Domingo, Santiago (north, the second city in the country), La Romana (east), La Vega (center) and San Pedro de Macorís (this).

This is the second year that the Dominican Republic celebrates this international activity created in 2008, which is associated with the use of technology, innovation, competitiveness and the generation of employment, and that has the support of dozens of world leaders and a network of more than 15,000 partner organizations.

Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic have aligned their entrepreneurial development activities to give a message of unity of the ecosystem of support of the region.

That effort is coordinated by the Regional Center for the Promotion of Micro and Small Enterprises (Cenpromype), a specialized entity of the Central American Integration System (SICA).