New E-Book Showcases Curitiba’s IT Services Ecosystem
February 7th, 2012
Click on the image to read the E-book
It’s been called “Silicon Valley South” and is one of many locations to be nicknamed “the Silicon Valley of Brazil.” Although Curitiba differs from the original Valley in several key ways – less traffic, for instance, and more trees – it does share one essential similarity: a concentration of technology expertise and software development experience.
Curitiba is capital of the state of Paraná, which is home to more than 260 software companies and six software clusters. Those providers embody more than 50 areas of business intelligence and more than 30 areas of IT specialty. Clients of Curitiba include ExxonMobil, HSBC, Nokia, and Wipro. IBM, Dell, and HP were among the first international tech companies to set up operations in Curitiba.
Who is Maria Clara Choucair and How Did She Rock the World of Colombia IT?
February 7th, 2012
Choucair: People said software testing is something users do.
Testing firm’s founder overcomes skeptics and machismo with a ‘humanist’ operating philosophy
By James Bargent
When Maria Clara Choucair founded Choucair Testing in 1999, it was the first software testing company in Colombia and one of only a handful in Latin America. The company started with a workforce of one – Maria Clara Choucair. Thirteen years later, Choucair Testing has 450 employees, branches in Medellin and Bogota and Lima, Peru, and a host of big-name clients.
In Brazil, After-Hours E-Communications Could Equal Overtime Pay
February 6th, 2012Source: Herald Tribune
Brazilians tired of answering their boss’s after-hours emails may be able to charge overtime based on a law businesses see hurting competitiveness in Latin America’s largest economy.
Using portable communications devices is equivalent to working in the office, according to legislation signed by President Dilma Rousseff last month.
The law is one more obstacle companies say they face in Brazil, where regulations mandating everything from employer- provided breakfasts to union contributions are a daily drag on efficiency bemoaned for decades as the “Custo Brasil,” or Brazil Cost.
It takes less time to set up a business in Nigeria or Mongolia than it does Brazil, according to the World Bank, which ranked it No. 126 out of 183 countries in its 2012 competitiveness study.
“It’s very worrying,” Emerson Casali, head of labor relations at the National Industry Confederation, said in a phone interview from Brasilia. “If enforced, it could have …
Colombian Peso Loses Value, But For How Long?
February 6th, 2012Source: Bloomberg
Colombia’s peso fell for the first time in a week after the central bank said it will resume dollar purchases in a bid to ease a rally in the local currency and shore up exports.
Banco de la Republica will buy a minimum of $20 million a day in auctions for at least three months starting today in a bid to boost international reserves, according to a statement issued Feb. 3 after markets closed. The peso fell 0.2 percent to 1,787.30 per dollar from 1,784.50 on Feb. 3.
The peso has advanced 8.5 percent this year and touched a five-month high on Feb. 3 as central bankers raised thebenchmark interest rate, luring investment to the country’s fixed-income market, to cool growth and keep inflation in check. While the three-month dollar buying program may slow the peso’s gains, it’s unlikely to reverse the currency’s rally, said Juan Nicolas Garcia, a …
Billionaire Slim Criticizes OECD Report on Mexico’s Phone Industry
February 2nd, 2012Source: Business Week
Billionaire Carlos Slim was out of context and off the mark in his criticism of a study finding a lack of competition in Mexico’s phone industry, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.
Slim told reporters yesterday that the group’s report, released earlier this week, seemed to use data “pulled out of thin air.” The 72-year-old, who controls Mexico’s largest wireless and landline-phone companies, denied the study’s claims that Mexican carriers overcharged consumers $13.4 billion a year for phone and Internet services from 2005 to 2009.
Mexico’s government, which commissioned the study, is using it to validate efforts to create more competition in telecommunications. The findings support the government’s plan to auction off fiber-optic lines owned by the state power company and contracts to push high-speed Internet into communities where it’s not available, Communications and Transportation Minister Dionisio Perez-Jacome said this week.
“The OECD stands by its …
Brazil Living Costs Surpass US; Economist Warns of Risks
February 1st, 2012
São Paulo: Making Manhattan look cheap.
By Filipe Pacheco
High costs are one of the prices international companies must pay for doing business in Brazil– especially when it comes to the services industry. Now one of the most plugged-in financial institutions in the world, the International Monetary Fund, has released numbers that demonstrate what many suspected anyway: The cost of living in Brazil in 2011 rose to slightly higher than that of the United States.
Jamaica Reaches Out to Global Investors
January 31st, 2012Jamaica’s growing reputation as a top Caribbean destination for investment in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and other key growth sectors is set to take centre stage on March 1-2, 2012, as the island lays out the red carpet for investors seeking opportunities in the region’s largest English-speaking economy.
The Jamaica Investment Forum 2012, which will be staged at the new Montego Bay Convention Centre, will focus on the business opportunities that exist in ICT, as well as other priority areas such as Tourism, Manufacturing and major privatization and development projects.
The Prime Minister of Jamaica, the Most Hon. Portia Simpson Miller, will head a high profile slate of local and international speakers at the Forum, which is being organized by JAMPRO, the country’s investment promotion agency, in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Compete Caribbean Programme. The opening of the event will feature presentations from Anthony Hylton, the …
Cristina Fernandez is the Most Powerful President in Argentine History
January 31st, 2012Source: MercoPress
President Cristina Fernandez has more power than Juan Domingo Peron “ever had” and Peronism in Argentina is guarantee of governance, according to Carlos Corach a former Interior minister from the former President Carlos Menem administration and a respected solicitor and political analyst.
“Cristina Fernandez is probably the president which has enjoyed more power in the history of Argentina. I’d say even more, she has more power than what Peron had. Peron had to deal and negotiate with very strong corporations, and economic and political sectors”, said the former minister.
Corach added that Peron (the Army Colonel who was president from 1946/1952, re-elected in 1952 but ousted by a military coup in 1955, to return triumphantly in 1973) had to learn to live with the Armed Forces, a very powerful Catholic Church and an opposition that also had strong and charismatic leaders”.
“Currently the majority of those players don’t hold such …
Brazil Wrestles with How to Navigate New Era of Immigration
January 31st, 2012Source: CNN
The rise of Brazil as an economic force has brought with it a policy challenge familiar here in the United States: immigration.
Recently crowned the world’s sixth-largest economy, Brazil has become an immigration magnet, both to low-skilled workers –some of whom enter illegally — and high-skilled workers looking for opportunities in the country’s thriving sectors.
Brazil historically has been welcoming to immigrants, but the challenge now is more pronounced as the government seeks to accept foreigners while protecting its hard-won prosperity.
The country faces two simultaneous challenges: how to deal with recent illegal immigration, mostly from Haiti, and how to make it easier for highly educated immigrants to get work permits. A number of Brazilian ministries have either proposed or are deliberating policies as the country ushers in a new era of immigration.
“You cannot become the sixth economy in the world with impunity,” Defense Minister Celso Amorim, a former foreign …
Is Mexico Finally Waking Up to This Key Concept?
January 30th, 2012
By William Gourg
The Greeks, 2,500 years ago, were onto something. Creating a concept such as synergy might have been one of their greatest inventions. Although the word has sometimes been overused and abused, synergy surrounds us nowadays. Synergies underlie mergers and takeovers, coalition governments, and civil society movements. More and more often we are starting to see public-private partnerships that promise the benefits of mutual cooperation.
