Claudio Gonz\u00e1lez-Vega, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the BBVA Microfinance Foundation, has visited Fondo Esperanza and Emprende \u2013the two institutions belonging to the Foundation in Chile\u2013, where he had the opportunity to meet the workers in both banks and to personally make the acquaintance of some of the vulnerable entrepreneurs they support.<\/p>\n
During his stay in the country, Gonz\u00e1lez-Vega visited the \u201cLas Aut\u00f3nomas de El Bosque\u201d community bank at the branch office in La Cisterna, where he observed the entrepreneurs’ commitment to making their businesses succeed and saw how their productive activities empower them and generate wealth for their families and communities.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Diario Financiero, Gonz\u00e1lez-Vega highlighted the contribution of microfinance to countries’ development, the importance of financial inclusion and the significant impact the work of the microfinance institutions has on the development of the most vulnerable people in Latin America. \u201cSelf-employed workers are an extremely important part of society and contribute to its democratization and to social mobility, because these are people who take risks and stake everything. They have the capacity to get ahead, and what they need are facilitators that reinforce all that energy so they can double or treble their income\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
The chairman of the Foundation met with the management teams at Fondo Esperanza and Emprende, and gave a magisterial talk to the employees in both banks on microfinance and poverty, where they analyzed the current situation and the future challenges facing the microfinance sector and its contribution to the fight against poverty.<\/p>\n
The visit by Gonz\u00e1lez-Vega served to create a space in which to share experiences with Fondo Esperanza and Emprende and reassert their social capital as a group. \u201cThe most important thing is to know how to tap into the vast pool of knowledge and loyalty they have in their entrepreneurs so as to expand and remain competitive in an increasingly complex market. The goal is to improve productivity, but always remembering that at the end of the day, the relationship with the customer and the quality of the service they receive is what sets as apart from other actors in the market\u201d, he explained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"