Direct support to entrepreneurs, investors, other private sector players, and regulators remains crucial to growth and poverty reduction. Integra’s principals and consultants have been engaged in Economic growth activities for thirty years, and have deep experience ranging from privatization of enterprises in the former Soviet Union to export development in Latin America. We specialize in trade and investment promotion and in enterprise development and competitiveness, and our approach is one that works hand in hand with private sector partners to maximize the social benefits of a vibrant business community.
Enterprise Development and Competitiveness
Integra believes that small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are the drivers of sustainable growth in developing countries. Today, the sweeping extent of globalization presents these businesses with a unique set of challenges and opportunities. They have access to a global marketplace and to cutting-edge technology, a situation that presents strong growth opportunities for firms that are able to take advantage of them. Yet, at the same time SMEs face global competition in their domestic markets, meaning that firms that do not keep up will lose access even to these opportunities. The strategic situation of developing country SMEs has changed, and the stakes of success or failure have increased sharply. To succeed in this new environment firms need access to finance and investment, strong market linkages, efficient value chains, improved transport and logistics, skilled and tech-savvy workforces, access to innovative networks and of peers, and a legal and regulatory environment that does not prove overly burdensome. Through USAID’s GBI IQC Integra is currently helping to facilitate networks of unaffiliated entrepreneurs in the ICT space, and is working with telecoms operators to ensure their policies best promote economic growth.
Trade and Investment Promotion
Growth is driven not simply by the availability of markets and labor, but through timely and scalable private sector investments in productive capacity, human resources, infrastructure, and management skills. Integra helps to blueprint strategies for growth taking all of these factors into consideration. Our staff and consultants have over thirty years experience leading successful trade and investment promotion program in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and East Asia.
Working with the Private Sector
Integra has been working hand in hand with private technology companies since the firm’s inception. We are currently implementing a series of workshops with the Intel Corporation that aim at improving the operations of Universal Service Funds around the world. Further, we partner with small technology companies and mobile network operators to provide context-appropriate telecommunications infrastructure in remote rural areas.
