Latin America ‘Weak’ Infrastructure Starts to Get a Major Facelift
February 3rd, 2012
Peru, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and Colombia drive forward with big projects
By Clayton Browne
Latin America has long been considered a laggard in terms of global infrastructure development, but that perception should be changing. Countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Puerto Rico have all begun major long-term infrastructure projects ranging from roads to dams to telecommunications towers to airports. Infrastructure development in the areas of energy, transportation and telecommunications have seen the greatest recent growth, with estimates ranging as high as $450 billion, to be spent on infrastructure in the area between 2011 and 2015.
COUNTRY PROFILE: Puerto Rico’s Knowledge Economy Off to a Slow Start
December 15th, 2011By Luke Bujarski
Given its close proximity to the mainland and ample bilingual workforce, Puerto Rico should stand out as an ideal Nearshore platform for call centers and BPO operators – right?
Not so fast: Cost arbitrage aside – a lack of coordinated planning around a knowledge economy may have also set Puerto Rico back a long way behind similar Caribbean and Central American (CCA) markets, particularly for knowledge-intensive services. Here, lessons can be drawn from the successes Costa Rica has had in attracting technology-enabled captive operations. And, given the right global market environment, Puerto Rico could see expansion beyond the current 5,000 or so contact center seats.
Google Looks to Open Operations Center in Panama, Puerto Rico or Costa Rica (Espanol)
January 30th, 2010Google planea iniciar este año operaciones comerciales en Perú, con lo que ese país se sumará a los cinco de América Latina donde el buscador de internet más utilizado del mundo ya tiene presencia: Argentina, Brasil, México, Chile y Colombia.
“Tenemos un plan bastante agresivo de expansión para 2010 y estamos estudiando la apertura de más operaciones en Latinoamérica. Hemos decidido ya que Perú será la próxima”, dijo hoy a Efe el director general de Google para la región, Alexandre Hohagen.
En una entrevista concedida durante su visita a Estados Unidos, Hohagen, que habitualmente trabaja desde Brasil, explicó que, después de haber estudiado los hábitos de acceso a internet en América Latina, han visto que “desde Perú se hacen muchas búsquedas”.
Por eso, la firma ha decidido “abrir una oficina allí y contratar gente local, para iniciar todo el trabajo de ventas, desarrollo de nuevos negocios y contacto con la …
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.
Click here for more information:
WorldNet, a competitive telecom provider in Puerto Rico had the courage to build out an all-IP facilities-based infrastructure AND the cojones to go up against one of the most powerful telecom titans in this hemisphere,
Telecom competition is beginnning to heat up in Puerto Rico
Carlos Slim (owner of incumbent PRT). Carol Wilson, chief editor of Telephony magazine, tells the WorldNet story which includes building out fiber-to-the-home and broadband wireless. Services on top of these spanking new networks are in demand in what many people are describing as “technology-crazed” Puerto Rico. With an IP MPLS backbone, WorldNet is positioned to offer hosted services for businesses.
“Today we feel like we are turning a corner, and we’re at the point where we stop worrying about whether we have a reliable …
Caribbean Nations Outrank India, Brazil and Mexico in ICT Readiness
March 30th, 2009The World Economic Forum’s release of the most networked countries in the world provides an interesting snapshot 
of where Caribbean nations place among some well known ICT havens, some with far larger economies and populations. The report, sponsored by Cisco, is a graphic indicator of the powerful role of ICT as a catalyst for commercial success. Irene Mia, a senior economist of the Global Competitiveness Network at the WEF and co-editor of the report says the success of leading ICT nations (including perennial frontrunning Nordic countries, the United States and Singapore) is a reminder to public and private interests to stay focused ” on ICT as an important enabler of growth and competitiveness in times of crisis.”
Noteworthy in the results was the showing among leading Caribbean nations, most of whom continue to place ICT initiatives high on the investment …
