EMPRETEC is an integrated capacity-building programme of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The programme promotes the creation of sustainable support structures that help promising entrepreneurs build innovative and internationally competitive small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). EMPRETEC also encourages the formation of mutually beneficial business linkages among SMEs as well as with transnational corporations (TNCs). As a result, it contributes to the development of a dynamic private sector and an open entrepreneurial culture. Therefore, it is a vital complement to effective macroeconomic policies and enabling legal and regulatory framework.

The name Empretec – the Spanish acronym for emprendedores (entrepreneurs) and tecnología (technology) – has been first introduced in Argentina in 1988. Since its inception, the EMPRETEC programme has been initiated in 27 countries, assisting more than 80,000 entrepreneurs through local market-driven business support centres.

EMPRETEC's core product is the Entrepreneurship Training Workshop (ETW). On the basis of written applications and business-focused interviews, approximately thirty participants enter the programme through an initial 10-day achievement motivation workshop which encourages the individuals to focus on their roles as entrepreneurs and challenges them to critically examine their personal strengths and weaknesses. The ETW is an opportunity for the participants to become more familiar with the behavioural competencies of successful entrepreneurs, strengthen and enhance those behaviours in themselves, and finally be able to apply the behaviours in their own businesses.