|
 Brazil ranks ninth in a 19-nation list of the best countries to do business in Latin America, according to the second annual Latin Business Index from Latin Business Chronicle. The index has Chile again at the top and Venezuela at the bottom of the list.
The index of the 19 countries looks at five key categories and 28 subcategories to measure the recent, current and future business environment in a country.
They are: Macro Environment (GDP growth 2006 and 2007, estimated growth this year and forecasted growth next year, GDP per capita and inflation 2006 and 2007, estimated inflation this year and forecasted inflation next year); Globalization & Competitiveness (globalization, competitiveness, tariffs and education/ health).
They also include Corporate Environment (corporate tax rates, access to capital for entrepreneurs and ease of doing business, including starting and closing a business); Sociopolitical Environment (political freedom, economic freedom, political stability, political outlook, business policies of government, corruption and security for companies and businessmen); Technology Level (PC, Internet, wireless and fixed telephony penetration).
Uruguay showed the leading position in technological development; third in political environment and fourth in corporate environment.
Panama follows Chile as the best place in Latinamerica to make business, followed by Peru, Uruguay and Dominica Republic. The region's leading economies, Mexico figures sixth and Brazil, ninth.
However Uruguay in the 2007 reports was in overall third place, behind Mexico.
Venezuela remains at the bottom of the list with the worst macroeconomic and corporate environment and in globalization and competitiveness. Venezuela ranks with the second highest inflation in the world.
Latin Business Chronicle says regional economies may be slowing down slightly from 2007 and the US sub prime crisis looms, "but the corporate sector in the region is anything but bullish, thanks to another strong year."
"In general, the South American economies remain strong," says Maureen Kempston Darkes president of General Motors' Latin America, Africa and Middle East division.
"GM and the industry [were] expected to hit record sales volumes in 2007, and the growth is expected to continue in 2008. With our global product portfolio, GM is well-positioned to take advantage of this growth."
Latin America's combined economy is expected to grow by 4.3% this year according to predictions from the International Monetary Fund. The World Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal) are slightly more optimistic, forecasting growth of 4.5% and 4.9%.
Latin Business Chronicle quotes Peter Rösler, deputy general manager of German business group Ibero-Amerika Verein who anticipates that by the end of 2008 the region will "have grown by around 30% since 2004" adding that the combined economies of Latin America have "the dimension of Germany or China."
Meanwhile, US firms have invested ten times as much in Latin America as they have in China, points out John Murphy, executive vice president of the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America (AACCLA), an organization that represents more than 80% U.S. investment in Latin America.
"Business will push ahead in the Americas [this] year, investing, trading, and creating jobs" he underlines.
Mercopress
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
Why did Uruguay show the leading position in Technological development? It is a point to ponder about.
Why are we in the 9th position? A part of the answer is in the article:
Our " Technology Level (PC, Internet, wireless and fixed telephony penetration)" is better than that in Uruguay,but still we are supposed to be below them in "Technologiccal Development". Why? Can anyone answer?