Kibo launches Costa Rica-tailored tech assessment and guarantee regime with SBD

Korea Technology Finance Corporation, known as Kibo, has developed a technology assessment and guarantee regime tailored to Costa Rica's industrial and financial environment and is moving to implement it locally.

Kibo held a policy dissemination seminar on introducing a technology finance regime in San José, Costa Rica, from Tuesday through Thursday, together with the Inter-American Development Bank and Costa Rica's Banco de Desarrollo de Costa Rica. Kibo and the development bank signed a memorandum of understanding on technology finance cooperation at the event.

The seminar was organized to share with Costa Rican government agencies and financial institutions the results of a technical support consulting project on Costa Rica-tailored technology assessment and guarantees that Kibo has been carrying out with the IDB since February last year.

Kibo developed the Costa Rica Technology Rating System, or CTRS, by adapting its own technology assessment system to local conditions. Building on that, it also designed the Costa Rica Technology Guarantee regime, or CRTG, aimed at improving financing access for innovative small and medium-sized enterprises that lack sufficient collateral.

To put the CTRS and CRTG into local practice, Kibo established a pilot assessment process and an operational framework. It conducted pilot assessments of local SMEs, drew up a technology assessment manual and work processes, and ran capacity-building training sessions for local practitioners.

About 200 people attended the seminar, including representatives from the Costa Rican government, financial institutions, and academic and research organizations. The CTRS and CRTG were officially launched at the opening ceremony on the first day.

Kibo and the development bank also signed their MOU at the opening ceremony. The two institutions will share operational experience from running the CTRS and CRTG, exchange experts and staff for joint research, and explore new cooperative projects.

The Costa Rican government plans to use funding sources including the National Development Fund to provide financing to local innovative SMEs based on the CTRS and CRTG.

Kibo intends to broaden the scope of its cooperation on technology assessment and guarantee regimes by sharing innovative finance cases from Latin American countries such as Peru and Uruguay with the IDB.

"We have laid the institutional groundwork for innovative SMEs in Costa Rica to access financing based on their technological capabilities and growth potential," said Lee Sang-chang, a Kibo director. "We will continue working with overseas institutions to help technology finance models suited to each country's conditions take root."