Piñera Warns Of Energy Crisis in Chile
January 18th, 2012Source: Merco Press
President Sebastián Piñera announced a 20-year plan for Chile’s energy needs at the annual energy dinner in front of the country’s top executives in the electricity sector. The president said the plan aims to create “a cleaner energy, that is safer, more economical and that agrees with the energy requirements of our country.”
The eight-point plan focused on making Chile’s energy production more efficient and improving sources of renewable energy. The measure includes implementation of energy savings of up to 12%, equivalent to about 1,100 megawatts of electricity by 2020.
Piñera warned executives that Chile would face an energy crisis during his administration and beginning in 2015 the country could face serious problems. The demand for energy in the country is estimated to grow an average of 6 or 7% annually until 2020.
Among other measures Piñera planned to combat these problems by increasing the percentage of Chile’s …
Chile and Massachusetts Form Historic Alliance
December 26th, 2011Source: The Santiago Times
Involving leading institutions in Chile and the USA, the agreement aims to foster research in the fields of education, energy and biotechnology.
The Chilean government has signed a strategic bilateral agreement with the state of Massachusetts, opening the way for collaborative research in the key areas of education, energy and biotechnology.
In an interview with EFE press agency, Chilean Ambassador to the United States Arturo Fermandois said the deal was part of a broader plan to transform Chile into a fully-fledged developed nation by the end of the decade.
Home to some of the world’s leading universities, including Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Tufts, Fermandois said Massachusetts was an “ideal partner” for the South American nation.
“It’s the state that generates the most knowledge, the state that is granted the most patents and the state that has the most productive academics.”
Each year the …
Chile’s Piñera Vows to Strengthen Ties with Argentina
December 13th, 2011Source: I Love Chile
On Dec. 10, President Sebastián Piñera attended the inauguration ceremony for Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the President of Argentina, for her second term in office, pledging to strengthen the relationship between Argentina and Chile.
He stated that Chile’s main objective was “to have the best relationship with every country in the world, but particularly with our neighbors.”
Those present at the ceremony included presidents Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, Evo Morales of Bolivia, José Mujica of Uruguay and Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, among other dignitaries.
Although relations between the two countries have been a little bumpy, there has been no major direct conflict since the 1970s, which was a territorial conflict. Since the transitions to democracy in Chile in 1989 and Argentina in 1983, there has been greater economic integration, though Chile has had more of stable growth while Argentina has had ups and downs. Now, the …
Setting Out to Train More Scrum Masters and Develop More ‘Agile Nations’
December 13th, 2011By Dennis Barker
In the big international competition with India and other low-cost outsourcing destinations, some Nearshore IT providers have been taking their game to the next level (apologies for the sports cliche) by adopting agile software-development methods. And one of the keys to helping teams become skilled agile players is to hire or train good coaches – leaders who are certified scrum masters.
(Scrum is defined by the Scrum Alliance as “an agile framework for completing complex projects.” The term was adapted from rugby – hence the sports cliche – in a 1986 study by Takeuchi and Nonaka that alluded to a team trying to “go the distance as a unit, passing the ball back and forth.”)
Chilean Key Interest Rates Remain Steady
December 6th, 2011Source: Bloomberg
Chile’s economy is weathering the global economic downturn with near full employment, indicating interest rates may remain at their highest level in almost three years, the central bank’s deputy governor said.
“My base scenario is that the economy is at a level consistent with potential output, so monetary policy should continue to be more or less in a neutral stance,” Manuel Marfan said in an interview in Santiago yesterday. “But there are risks, and it all depends on the size of the shocks.”
Policy makers have kept the key interest rate at 5.25 percent at their past five meetings as they wait to see if the European crisis will erode demand for commodity exports and damp inflationary pressures. The economy grew 3.4 percent in October from a year ago, the slowest pace since the aftermath of an February 2010 earthquake, the central bank reported yesterday.
“There are signals that there …
A Deeper Examination of Immigration Policies in the Big Six Latin America Markets
December 1st, 2011
By: Patrick Haller
Brazil makes it difficult. Costa Rica is complex but straightforward. Colombia requires a lot of paperwork as does Argentina. Mexico and Chile reputedly provide a smooth road by comparison to the others. We are talking about immigration procedures in Latin America. Navigating through the sometimes confusing, often confounding, maze of immigration regulation can be frustrating at best. Nearshore Americas examines what is involved with obtaining and keeping, work-related visas across Latin America.
Four Southern Cone Countries Target New ICT Fiber Ring
December 1st, 2011Source: Total Telecom
Countries aim to cut costs with $100 million plan to build 2,000 kilometres of new cable.
Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile and other countries in South America are proposing building fiber-optic links between their networks to cut costs and save time, Brazilian communications minister Paulo Bernardo said Tuesday.
The countries in the region already have their own fiber-optic networks, and they could be linked together with the construction of as few as 2000 kilometers of new cable, mostly along existing rights-of-way, Bernardo said at a press conference.
The connections could be built in about two years, at a cost of about $100 million, he told reporters. Right now most of the connections between countries in the region go via the U.S., adding to the cost and to the time of calls and data transmissions.
As much as 85% of Internet traffic in South America passes through Miami, the Inter-American Development …
Top Ten Trends for 2012 in Nearshoring Industry
November 30th, 2011Stability – ironically – becomes the central attraction around the Latin America outsourcing proposition
By Patrick Haller
During 2011 the world has seen significant changes in social, political and economic dynamics. The Arab Spring, violence in Mexico, a deepening financial crisis and the Occupy movement all have risen to influence business conditions and investment flows. As the year nears its close, we checked in with advisory firm ThinkSolutions to understand how the tumultuous events of 2011 will influence what happens in the Nearshoring sector in 2012.
Europe’s Economic Woes Push Spain’s Everis Deeper into the Americas
November 30th, 2011By Luke Bujarski
Patricia García of Everis Chile
The gloomy economic situation in Europe has not stopped Spain’s Everis from turning obstacles into opportunities, both overseas as well as on the European continent. However, with clear operational and cultural ties to Latin America, Nearshore Americas predicts that this IT consulting and services giant will be making big strategic moves to expand its regional presence here, particularly as it finds the path of least resistance in serving markets in Mexico, Brazil and the US from its Chilean center. We sat down with Patricia García, General Managing Partner with Everis Chile to understand how a Spanish-born player is scaling up, despite Europe’s mounting economic turmoil.
Chile, Colombia and Peru Agree Not to Change Interest Rates
November 16th, 2011Source: Bloomberg
Chile joined Colombia and Peru in leaving its benchmark interest rate unchanged yesterday as the European debt crisis shows little sign of damping growth or easing price pressures in the world’s top copper producer.
Chile’s five-member policy board, led by Jose De Gregorio in what may be his last meeting as bank president, held the overnight rate at 5.25 percent, as forecast by all 16 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. De Gregorio’s term ends Dec. 9 and President Sebastian Pinera has yet to nominate a replacement.
While Brazil has cut rates at each of its past two meetings, Peru, Colombia and now Chile have kept rates unchanged at recent meetings as they gauge the impact of global economic turmoil. Chile’s economic growth accelerated in September, while retail sales leaped 9.6 percent and the annual inflation rate rose to a 30-month high in October.
“We don’t interpret the central bank as being …
