A valuable bridge between Latin America and China

[Source] - Andean Development Corporation

• The CAF President, accompanied by an official delegation, visited the Asian country to deepen trade and investment links between Latin America and China.

• The Corporation is playing its characteristic catalytic role attracting funds from other latitudes for the progress of the region.

CAF President & CEO Enrique Garcia visited Peking, accompanied by a delegation from the Corporation, with the objective of deepening trade and investment ties between Latin America and China.

The working agenda included CAF participation in the Latin America-China Investors Forum (LA-CIF), organized by Latin Finance Magazine, along with a series of meetings with China Development Bank (CDB), EximChina, China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), and Sinocapital, among others.

Promoting investment and trade between the two regions

At the LA-CIF Forum, CAF President Garcia, along with the president of HSBC China, Richard Yorke, and the deputy governor of the China Development Bank, Jian Gao, was one of the keynote speakers at the inaugural session which was attended by a large number of business leaders, bankers, investors, government representatives, academics and media.

During his remarks, Garcia spoke of the important role that China is playing in the current international economic and financial situation and its contributions to mitigating the effects of the global crisis. He emphasized the complementarity of the economies of the two regions and the positive impact which China’s accelerated growth has had on Latin American investments and exports.

He underlined the enormous potential of bi-regional relations and CAF’s interest in deepening them with a view to building a valuable bridge between Latin America and China. “The Corporation is committed to supporting Latin American countries in opening of new horizons in Asia and strengthening a long-term integrated development agenda. Its catalytic role will help attract new actors to channel additional resources, both economic and technological, in order to achieve sustained development and move toward stronger economies stimulated by competitive advantages.”

China Development Bank: a strategically

One of the most important high-level meetings held by the mission was with the China Development Bank Corporation (CDB), represented by its Governor Chen Yuan.

The two institutions, based on the excellent level of relations and successful joint work which has led to increased knowledge of China and of Latin America, agreed to sign a new cooperation agreement in the near future. The accord will define new lines of credit; move forward with cofinancing operations to benefit small, medium-sized and large enterprises; set up a trust fund; and promote exchange of personnel.

“Through CAF we have come to know more about Latin America,” Governor Yuan said. “We recognize the potential which the region represents and we have worked hard to make this into real cooperation. CAF is the best partner for us.”

Garcia said bilateral relations began in 2006, following identification of a series of common interests. He expressed his satisfaction that CAF had contributed to the important work which CDB is doing in Latin America, and the joint financing of projects in the region. “Our activities during this visit to China – the CAF president concluded – mean we are playing a catalytic role by contributing ideas and resources from other regions in favor of regional development.”

New steps in expanding relations with China Eximbank

As part of its strategy of deepening relations with Asia, the CAF mission also met with the Export-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank) which has become an important source of financing for capital goods, technology and infrastructure projects around the world.

At the meeting, the two institutions reaffirmed their interest in working jointly in areas of common interest. They agreed to sign a framework cooperation agreement in the near future which will cover lines of credit and joint operations with a view to actively promoting trade and investment initiatives in the framework of horizontal cooperation between developing countries.

China, Costa Rica make progress in free trade talks – AFP

SAN JOSE — China and Costa Rica concluded the fourth round of negotiations in Beijing aimed at reaching a free trade agreement, according to the foreign trade ministry.

Costa Rica — which gave up six decades of ties with Taiwan in favor of China two years ago — is the third Latin American country to negotiate a free trade deal with China, after Chile and Peru.

In the round of talks that ended Thursday agreements were reached for more than 90 percent of each country’s exports, the trade ministry said.

Costa Rican exports include coffee, bananas, fruit juices, cigars, pork, beef and chicken, said Costa Rican chief negotiator Fernando Ocampo…

Click here to access the full article from AFP

Current Situation in Honduras

Today, I present to all readers, Pamela Fernandez, a university colleague of mine from Honduras who was nice enough to email me a incredibly well articulated analysis of the situation going on down in Honduras. The original message arrived in my mail box last night at 1:18 am, June 29, 2009 – Eastern Standard Time.

Pamela writes:

I feel the media has done a terrible job in reporting the events that took place yesterday in Honduras. A friend of a friend mainly wrote the following 8 points. I have edited them out a bit and added the translation of the constitution article. Below you’ll find my views.

1. The event this morning should be taken as an arrest against a Honduran citizen, Manuel Zelaya, who broke the constitutional Honduran law in multiple occasions over the last few days. This SHOULD NOT be taken as a Coup d’état.
TRANSLATION – Article 239.- The citizen that has been the head of the Executive Branch cannot be President or Vice-President again.

Whoever violates this law or proposes its reform, as well as those that support such violation directly or indirectly, will immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years.

2. The vast majority of Hondurans firmly oppose Manuel Zelaya and are in favor of his arrest.

3. The current news being portrayed in international networks appear to be heavily tilted toward a contrarian view of most Hondurans.

4. The majority of Hondurans are not in favor of Manuel Zelaya and are extremely proud of our congress and military for their stance in favor of democracy and peace.

5. The events happening today were caused by an attempt by Manuel Zelaya to manipulate our country and its constitution to fulfill his ultimate goal of remaining in power indefinitely.

6. The world should be proud of Honduras as we are the first Latin-American country to stand against a tyrannical leader who has tried to topple democracy and peace in our country.

7. Declarations made by Hugo Chavez should be discredited immediately. He should, as President Obama said, allow Hondurans to solve this issue through open communication following LEGAL processes.

8. It is ONLY in the interest of Honduras and its citizens that democracy prevails.

Now mine:

Facts:
• The economic growth the country experienced in 2006 was a result of the previous government not of Mel’s. The country is now in as much debt as it was before. After a GDP growth of 6% in the 2005, according to the World Bank it is expected to fall to about 2% in 2009.

• In December 2008, Mel decided to raise the minimum wage by 60% against the economists and private sector advice. The government itself will not be able to pay the public employees including teachers and doctors next year. It has resulted in a higher than unemployment rate and it is expected to rise even more in 2010.

• The public higher education system cannot afford to pay the university professors under the new minimum. The professors went on strike for two months and the issue still undresolved.

• After the recent earthquake Mel denied the severity of the damages in port city of Puerto Cortes and never declared a state of emergency in the country. In previous years, he had also undermined the impact of floods and hunger stricken south.

• There were no reported cases of swine flu in Honduras before the OAS summit in San Pedro Sula. Once the summit was over the cases jumped from 0 to 118 as confirmed by the BBC. But the Health Ministry says there are 1,000 cases.

• According to the Observatorio Centro Americano de la Violencia, the there are 42 homicides per 1,000 inhabitants; the international rate is 8.8. In average, there are at least 12 violent deaths per day, the highest in Central America.

• According to the 2004 World Bank report, 50% of the population lived under the poverty line and 36.2% below the extreme poverty line 36.2%. The World Food Program estimated it at 73% in 2008; currently the BBC reports a 70% in the country profile.

• The country’s budget for the 2009 fiscal year was never made, some argue there’s no money and that’s why Mel would not make it.

• No body really knows how many millions of Lempiras and possibly dollars were spent on publicity for the referendum.

• Mel was paying people to vote “Yes” in the referendum.

• Hugo Chaves, Correa, Elbo and Ortega are currently in Nicaragua holding an emergency meeting of the ALBA and Central American nations. Chavez said that he would respect Honduras’ sovereignty and would not make a military intervention.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rumors:

• The referendum materials were sent from Venezuela.

• Mel would have done an “auto” Coup against the congress and the military today if the Public Ministry (not the military) had tried to stop the voting.

• Based on a reported increase flow of Nicaraguans into Honduras: hundreds of Nicaraguan soldiers crossed the border on Friday and Saturday disguised as civilians.

• Chavez is planning to do a military intervention in Honduras. Still, his discourse last night was borderline offensive.

All that said, the president of congress Roberto Micheletti was sworn as interim president promising and making it a decree to hold the general elections on November 29th as scheduled and give the power to the elected president on January 27th. The military is not in power, they just did their job and defended the constitution.

Of course, there are plenty of sketchy things in the whole process. For example, Mel’s resignation letter, which he denies writing, the fact that Micheletti was running for president but lost the primaries are just a few; and the fact that TV, radio, and internet were cut in the main cities for couple of hours during the coup. Also a fact, not every Honduran likes Micheletti but not every Honduran likes Mel. We are trying to pick the lesser of 2 evils.

I’m not against the citizens’ right to give their opinion in the referendum but the Electoral Institute was not supervising it. I, as are many Hondurans, am aware of the social injustice and the extreme poverty in my country. We feared and questioned the transparency of the process. We also believe, and know, that Mel was acting on his interest and not that of the country.

I’m not happy that we have come to this but now we can only wonder what would have happened if Mel had gone ahead with the referendum. From my point of view, the assurance of elections in November makes this a move in favor of democracy and not one against it. Sadly, the international community does not see it this way. The UN, OAS, EU and US want Mel back because he was democratically elected, Honduras doesn’t want him back because he was trying to interrupt the democratic process by staying longer as a president.

Honduras is in peace right now, nobody died, very few were hurt, after some riots by Mel’s supporters yesterday there’s no civil unrest. The curfew is not against civil liberties it is meant to prevent riots and such from happening. In case that rumors are true and Hugo Chavez tries to use military force in Honduras, we hope and pray… I hope he doesn’t and hope we can get back solving the real problems of the country.

The good thing in all of this? I want to believe that Hondurans will wake up and take a more active role in politics. That hopefully the corrupt politicians will take a hint and realize that the “people” as Mel said can stand up against them when need it.

If you read this much, THANK YOU very much,

Pamela Fernandez is graduate of American University who specializes in visual media and film studies. You can learn more about Pamela and see some of her work at her personal site — http://www.pamelafer.com/

Newswire: China South America

[Peru - China] — Peru, China relations “at best moment”

Chinese ambassador to Peru, Gao Zhengyue, said that relations between his country and Peru “are at their best moment” in history.

According to him, both countries have deepened the confidence in the political, economic, technological educational, cultural, tourism and justice areas, among others.

The Chinese diplomat noted the increase of the economic, trade flow and bilateral investments, and highlighted the increase of the Chinese investments in Peru, with over seven billion dollars.

“I am convinced that with joint efforts the relations between our two brotherly countries will enter a new stage of development and reach a higher level in the two peoples’ benefit,” said Zhengyue.

[Latin America - China - Africa] — China’s new frontier

Chinese telecom-gear makers Huawei and ZTE have already conquered Africa and Asia. Next stop: Latin America.

(Fortune Magazine) — At phone operator Movistar’s sales offices in Buenos Aires, customers line up to buy high-speed wireless services to access the web on their mobile phones. Most Argentines don’t realize, though, that the company providing the gear for their broadband connections isn’t a longtime supplier to Latin America like Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, or Motorola, but a relative newcomer called Huawei.

China’s telecom suppliers are coming to the Americas. Pursuing the same formula they’ve used to win business throughout Asia and parts of Africa (selling cheap gear in low-income countries), equipment makers Zhong Xing Telecommunication Equipment (also known as ZTE) and Huawei are now getting a foothold in countries such as Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. Says Leandro Musciano, project director at Movistar Argentina, a unit of Spain’s Telefónica: “Price is important.”

[Caribbean - China] — China’s expanding relations with Latin America and the Caribbean

Commentary
By Odeen Ishmael

The recent visit of Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva to China in May 2009 reflected the Asian nation’s expanding economic and political influence in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). One year ago, the Brazilian government had announced that China would surpass the United States as its major business partner. The results of da Silva’s visit verified this after the two nations signed 13 agreements, including a $10 billion loan from the China Development Bank to Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras. Petrobras also concluded a deal with a subsidiary of China’s oil refiner Sinopec for the export of crude oil. A major commercial agreement will also see the beginning of huge poultry exports to China.

Brazil’s two-way trade with China, one of the few economies still growing despite the global crisis, reached US$3.2 billion in April, surpassing the $2.8 billion trade total with the US. So far this year, Brazilian exports to China grew 65 percent over the same period in 2008, rising from $3.4 billion to $5.6 billion.

Weekend Newswire: Latin America

OAS can’t agree on Cuba, while Havana ridicules the organization
The task force created by the Organization of American States, OAS, in an attempt to bridge different members’ proposals to consider the readmission of Cuba seems to have stalled with the main actors clearly underlining their stance.

Colombia Cuts Benchmark Lending Rate to Record Low 5% to Stimulate Growth
Colombia’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate to a record today and signaled it’s ready to lower it further in an effort to ward off an extended recession as inflation eases

Braskem Taps Peru, Venezuela in $3.6 Billion Expansion Outside of Brazil
Braskem SA, Latin America’s largest petrochemicals producer, plans to invest $2.5 billion in a polyethylene plant in Peru, said Cleantho de Paiva Leite, Braskem’s director of international projects.

Sao Paulo-based Braskem, which holds a 50 percent share of Brazil’s resins market, also is working on engineering studies for a $1.1 billion petrochemical plant in Venezuela with state- owned Pequiven SA, de Paiva said in an interview in Lima.

Venezuela Expropriations: Chávez Talks Himself into Trouble with Argentina’s Fernández de Kirchner
The spark for the conversation sought by Fernández de Kirchner was a remark Chávez is reported to have made in private to Brazilian President Inacio Lula da Silva. That remark, it’s said, was to the effect that Venezuela was on course to take over foreign companies except for Brazilian ones.

President Hugo Chávez’ strategy of nationalizing companies including foreign ones, and a remark he did or did not make in seriousness to Brazilian President Ignacio Lula da Silva, appear to have posed problems for him and his Argentine friend and colleague, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

Chávez has depicted Fernández de Kirchner as an ally and soulmate in his bid to build a regional alliance to counter what he sees as the undue influence and power of the United States in Latin America. But his peremptory takeover of steelmaker Sidor and his tendency to talk off the top of his head may well have put her in between the proverbial rock and a hard place at home.

Argentina May Be Sanctioned By Manhattan Judge in Bondholder Litigation
Argentina may be sanctioned for failing to comply with a U.S. court order to turn over to bondholders documents regarding its pension funds, a federal judge in Manhattan said.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa ruled in October that Argentine pension funds nationalized by that country’s government and held in the U.S. may be used to satisfy bondholder judgments against the republic. Argentina has appealed. Griesa later ordered the South American nation to turn over documents related to its pension funds to bondholders.

Argentina’s Construction Activity Declined 5.5% in April From Year Earlier
Argentine construction activity fell the most in five months in April, as Argentines delayed investment plans amid the global financial crisis and political concern ahead of next month’s mid-term elections.

Mexico GDP to Sink Most Since 1932 in Fall `Hard to Fathom,’ Goldman Says
Mexico’s economy will contract this year by the most since 1932 as a slump in the U.S. curbs demand for exports and slows dollar flows from tourism and remittances, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said.

Newswire: Latin America

Latinamerica foreign trade forecasted to contract 9 to 11% in 2009
The main impact for Latinamerica of the global financial crisis and economic slowdown has been the contraction of trade, so far in the range of 9 to 11%, revealed Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Latinamerica and the Caribbean, Cepal.

“The strongest impact we are seeing in the region is the fall in trade volumes. I believe that the “shock” of the contraction of global demand for our goods and services is our most relevant issue”, said Bárcena in an interview with the Cuban daily Granma.

She recalled that when the last big crisis Latinamerica’s foreign debt was equivalent to 24% of GDP, while in 2008 it had dropped to 8%.

Latinamerican Liberals hold congress in “Bolivarian” Venezuela
Liberal political parties and thinkers from Latinamerica are holding their annual congress this week in the Venezuelan capital Caracas. The event is in the framework of the 25th anniversary of the local branch Cedice-Libertad and will promote debates on liberal policies to address poverty and the current global slowdown.

…

The congress is bound to spark some reaction among President Chavez followers since his Bolivarian revolution and XXIst Socialism stand at the opposite end of the political spectrum from the Liberals and the concept of individual freedom.

The two events will be taking place during a particularly sensitive week since President Chavez has ordered the nationalization of oil industry subcontractors, banks, steel industry, food processors and farm land considered idle.

Foreign direct investment to Latam reached 139 billion USD in 2008
Direct foreign investments in Latinamerica and the Caribbean are showing a significant resistance to the global crisis and in 2008 reached a record 139 billion US dollars, up 9.4% from the previous year according the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Latinamerica’s bicentennial independence festivities begin in Bolivia
Bolivia’s commemoration on Monday May 25th of the 200th anniversary of the first uprising in Latinamerica against the Spanish colonial empire will also mark the beginning of similar independence celebrations along the continent which will peak in 2010.

Third re-election running “inappropriate” admits Colombia’s Uribe
Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe says it would be “inappropriate” for him to seek a third consecutive term. His statement comes two days after the Senate approved a referendum that would ask voters to permit him to run again. Uribe did not, however, clearly rule out a re-election bid.

Latino Ex-pat workers hit in Japan

[Reuters] — May 15 – Latino workers in Japan have been offered money by the Japanese government to leave after losing jobs.

** click here to access the Reuters video (problems with the embed)