Tuesday Jun 19, 2007
June 12 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the U.S. plans to ``kick-start'' lending to small companies in Latin America, pushing to reduce the region's poverty through business expansion.
U.S. programs will aid growth of existing businesses while also helping entrepreneurs get their enterprises off the ground throughout the region, Paulson said in opening remarks at a forum on competitiveness in the Americas held in Atlanta.
Paulson and U.S. President George W. Bush have been seeking new ways to use capital in the Latin America region to foster poverty reduction. Paulson has acknowledged that past economic expansion hasn't always reduced the number of poor, and advocated new thinking to address the problem. He plans a tour through South America next month.
``A key to spreading prosperity is supporting entrepreneurs,'' Paulson said today. ``More people share in the benefits of economic freedom and growth when small businesses thrive.''
Paulson, who traveled to Mexico, Guatemala and Peru this year, has expressed concern that poverty levels remain stuck. One in five Mexicans are below the country's poverty line even though the country's economy averaged growth of 3.4 percent between 1995 and 2005, according to the World Bank.
He said the issues that concern him most are finding ways to make more capital available to small businesses and coaxing investors to spend more on roads, ports and other infrastructure. The geographic connection with the region makes economic growth of high importance to the U.S., where workers last year sent $45 billion abroad to their Latin American relatives, he said.
The U.S. will look to build new lending models, share in the initial risk for lending, and push for bank regulatory reforms to facilitate growth, Paulson said.
``A thriving small business community can reduce poverty and inequity, as well as create jobs,'' Paulson said, noting that small companies are the source of most employment growth.
Source:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aoW__TQDp0AU&refer=latin_america |
