Guatemalan President to Take Hard Line Against Crime
January 16th, 2012Source: Merco Press
Retired army Gen. Otto Perez Molina was sworn in as Guatemala’s president Saturday, pledging to take a tough stand on crime amid growing insecurity in the Central American nation.
“We have a country in crisis … a nation very close to an economic and moral breakdown,” he said. “Today, there is an air of hope.”
Concerns about violence in Guatemala, which has worsened as Mexican drug cartels have stepped up operations in parts of the country, dominated last year’s vote.
In a Vox Latina national survey in July, more than two-thirds of Guatemalans said violence was what concerned them most far outpacing the combined totals for the economy, unemployment, poverty and lack of education.
The 61-year-old retired general pledged to bring a “mano dura” — firm hand — to Guatemala’s highest office.
In a debate co-hosted by CNN last year, Perez Molina called for “elite units of the army” to …
Latin American Economies Gain in Global Competitiveness
October 3rd, 2011
By Robert L. Scheier
The World Economic Forum essentially gave a big round of applause to the tiger economies of Latin America recently, with it annual Global Competitiveness Report. Chile, Mexico and Brazil showed strong advancement – but one Caribbean country also is rising in the ranks, despite a bit of a quiet demeanor.
Uncontrollable factors such as rising commodity prices, as well as intentional choices such as business-friendly policies and modest levels of public debt, have set a foundation for the region to boost the fortunes of its economies and populations. But to take their game to the next level, the WEF recommends, these countries should focus on improving education, trust in public institutions and their transportation infrastructure.
Price War Looming for Guatemala’s Bilingual BPO Market?
September 30th, 2011By Luke Bujarski
“More English, more English, and more English,” exclaimed VP Kapil Rajvanshi from 24/7 Customer during a presentation at this week’s Global Services Summit in Guatemala City. The market here is indeed showing some concerning signs of overheating, as we quickly discovered during talks with the heads of Guatemala’s six BPO families. While saturation and wage inflation is nothing new in Central America, what has Guatemala’s BPO Commission president Herman Lopez deeply worried is the prospect of a race-to-the-bottom price war between the very people put in charge of coordinating a sustainable strategy for the country’s booming BPO cluster.
Can a Regional Alliance Lift Up Central America?
May 25th, 2011
By Brendan Wolters | The Solace Group
There has been a push toward regionalization in Central America. Government and business leaders understand the importance of uniting a region inhabited by an estimated 42,000,000 people. Officials believe they must work together to build economies that compete on a global scale.
As El Salvador President Mauricio Funes said at a summit meeting in 2010, “Only by joining forces would we be able to lift our peoples from . . . poverty.” But, much like everything else in Central America, regionalization has moved at a snail’s pace. Each country faces political, social, and economic challenges that hamper development. (See the section at the end of this article for a snapshot of each country’s current economic situation.)
Medical Tourism: Where Latin America has an Edge over Asia
June 16th, 2009
Cultural familarity and proximity are key advantages Latin America has over Asia
As many as 23 million US citizens will seek medical treatment overseas by the year 2017 (spending close to $80 billion), and as much as 50% of those treatments will take place in Latin America.
Despite President Obama’s remarks today about the need to shore up the US healthcare system, there is little doubt that an increasing number of citizens will take advantage of what is seen as inexpensive and reliable health care services south of the border.
With such a huge upside, it’s no wonder that medical tourism development leaders in Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Guatemala, Colombia, Chile, and El Salvador are looking to get a stake in this growing market.
So what does make …
You have to give credit to Affiliated Computer Systems (ACS) for anticipating the next wave of global sourcing and seeing beyond the turmoil of the current economic crisis.
ACS executive VP Ann Vezina
As Tom Blodgett, ACS executive vice president and Group President of ACS’ Business Process Solutions line of business told us in a recent interview “the caravan is moving along” in response to a question about the politics of outsourcing, the organization is definitely not standing still waiting for Accenture, IBM or Tata to claim more business. In an interview with InformationWeek yesterday, ACS executive VP Ann Vezina said that the company is headed toward establishing an even employee balance between offshore and onshore.
This would be a pretty dramatic shift, given the fact that about 70% of the …
Nina Kawalek, President and CEO of the Resource Center for Customer Service Professionals (RCCSP), has just 
announced the schedule for training throughout the Caribbean and Latin American (CALA) region. We talk a lot about investing in human capital in the nearshore BPO industry and there is probably nothing more tangible than investing in your own teams through these top-notch programs.
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ACS is building a strong near shore presence. The recent acquisition of e-Services in the Caribbean is just one more indicator that ACS sees Central America and the Caribbean as critical players in its call center, BPO and ITO service offerings. CRM Central checked in recently with Tom Blodgett, ACS executive vice president and Group President of ACS’ Business Process Solutions line of business. Below are excerpts of the interview:
Tom Blodgett's firm, ACS, acquired e-Services recently. He foresees ACS growing its presence in the Caribbean.
Why did you pursue the e-Services acquisition? We felt we had a void in our global production footprint. We need something nearshore – Where they spoke English as their native language. We have 5,000 people …
