Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC) spreads the Korea-style technology finance system to Costa Rica.
Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC) said on the 11th that from the 8th to the 10th it held a "local policy diffusion seminar" in San José, the capital of Costa Rica, with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Costa Rica Development Bank (SBD), and signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen cooperation on technology finance with SBD.
The seminar was organized to share the outcomes of the "technical assistance consulting for Costa Rica-style technology assessment and technology guarantees" project that Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC) has pursued with IDB since Feb. last year. Through this, KOTEC developed the Costa Rica-style technology assessment system (CTRS), tailored to Costa Rica's industrial and financial environment, and, based on it, designed the Costa Rica-style technology guarantee system (CRTG).
Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC) conducted pilot assessments for local small and midsize enterprises and prepared a technology assessment manual and business processes. It also trained local practitioners, laying the groundwork for the two systems to be used in policy finance on the ground.
About 200 people from the Costa Rican government and financial institutions, as well as academia and research institutes, attended the three-day seminar. At the opening ceremony on the first day, Francisco Gamboa Soto, first vice president of Costa Rica, and Jeon Geun-seok, ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Costa Rica, attended to celebrate the launch of CTRS and CRTG.
Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC) and SBD also signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in technology finance. Under the agreement, the two institutions will share experience and know-how for the stable operation of CTRS and CRTG, and pursue expert and staff exchanges, joint research, and the identification of new cooperative projects.
The seminar shared the development process of CTRS and the results of the pilot assessments, and discussed ways to institutionalize technology finance and expand it across Latin America. It also held a workshop to digitize the technology assessment manual and evaluation processes.
Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC) plans to use this project as a springboard to put technology finance systems into full use in Costa Rica and to spread K-technology finance across Latin America.
Lee Sang-chang, a director at Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC), said, "This project is meaningful in that it established an institutional foundation to improve innovative small and midsize enterprises' access to finance by applying Korea's technology finance experience to Costa Rica's conditions," adding, "We will strengthen cooperation with overseas partner institutions to help K-technology finance take root as an innovation finance model suited to each country's circumstances."