Foreign Ministry holds first meeting with ELLAS Fund committee

Foreign Ministry holds first meeting with ELLAS Fund committee

• The aim is to strengthen women-led MSMEs and include them in global value chains and on digital platforms.

To commemorate International MSME Day, celebrated on June 27, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) and the Mexican Business Council for Foreign Trade, Investment and Technology (Comce) held the first meeting of the ELLAS Fund committee.

The aim was to bring the strategic actors together to strengthen women-led MSMEs and include them in global value chains and on digital platforms.

The meeting was led by Global Economic Promotion Director General Rodrigo Morales Castillo; Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) Coordinator Ximena Mariscal de Alba; and Comce Director General Susana Duque.

The participants included the companies and organizations involved with the Fund, such as Salesforce, Femsa, Walmart Mexico, Huawei Mexico, UPS Mexico and Latam, Mercado Libre, Heineken, Stori Card, Nacional Financiera, Mexican Association of Women Heads of Business (AMMJE), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Bancomext, the Mexican Association of Women Entrepreneurs (AMME), Canacintra and the Association of Women Customs Agents.

In his remarks, Director General Rodrigo Morales said that the ELLAS Fund seeks to provide women entrepreneurs with a comprehensive support system that helps them with their operations, with gaining access to commercial networks and platforms, and with financing opportunities.

He also discussed the partnerships the Foreign Ministry has helped forge after months of work to promote the active participation of women in the business sector and the digital economy, creating added value in trade and new growth opportunities.

These alliances include: a Memorandum of Understanding with Salesforce; a Letter of Intent with Oxxo (Femsa); a Letter of Intent with Walmart to open marketing channels in various countries; the upcoming signing of an Agreement to Coordinate Actions with Huawei, UPS, Mercado Libre, GS1, Canacintra, Amex, AMMJE and AMA to promote women's initiatives abroad, and programs to develop business skills with a gender perspective.

FFP Coordinator Ximena Mariscal said that Mexico takes a feminist approach to its negotiations, and that only through open dialogue would we move towards equality between men and women.

The ELLAS Fund was presented by the Foreign Ministry at the 77th United Nations General Assembly in 2022 as a way of reducing the economic inequality gap in the region and promoting the economic empowerment of women through financial inclusion, networks, support platforms, access to information, capacity-building for international economic activities and granting seed capital for productive initiatives.

On behalf of the Government of Mexico, the Foreign Ministry reaffirms its commitment to substantive equality and to mainstreaming the gender perspective in Mexico's foreign policy.