April 1, 2006        www.LatinEPR.com          LatinEPR News Wire

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LATIN AMERICA - COMMUNICATIONS/MEDIA

 

Argentina and Brazil to Participate in ‘One Laptop Per Child’

 

Argentina and Brazil are among the countries interested in participating in the One Laptop Per Child Program (OLPC).  Developed by Nicholas Negroponte, founding chairman of the MIT Media Lab, the program intends to place $100 laptops into the hands of millions of poor children around the world.  The prototype, introduced this past November at the UN’s World Summit on the Information Society, runs on a Linux-based operating system and includes wireless networking capabilities, as well as internet connectivity.  It’s most novel features, however, are the retractable hand crank that recharges the laptop’s batteries when there is no available power source, and a dual screen that provides the option of color and energy-efficient black and white. Although the program has its detractors, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has praised the OLPC initiative and has called for similar efforts to bring communication technology to adults living in developing nations. OLPC expects to distribute laptops by either the end of 2006 or beginning of 2007.  Laptops will be available exclusively to government ministries, who will issue them to children by schools like textbooks.  The idea is that each child, and in turn the family at large, will not only gain an important educational tool and a window into the outside world, but that he/she will also experience a sense of empowerment that comes with owning the computer outright.

 

Hispanic Teleservices Corporation Company to Watch

 

Hispanic Teleservices Corporation (HTC), the leading provider of outsourced customer support for companies serving the Hispanic market, was recently named to the 2006 Global Services 100 (formerly known as the Offshore 100) list by neoIT and CMP Media's Global Services magazine. In its debut in the Global Services 100, HTC was also ranked as the only call center provider in the "Top Five Companies to Watch in Latin America" category. Hispanic Teleservices Corporation (HTC) is a leading provider of outsourced contact center services for companies serving the Hispanic market. HTC serves as a "remote office" for bilingual contact center operations, providing customer care, technical support, customer acquisition and e-services.

 

 

LATIN AMERICA - NEWS BRIEFS

 

Argentina Expects 4.1 Million Tourists

 

Buenos Aires Herald - The Argentine government has announced that it expects the country’s tourism revenue to be in the range of 3.5 billion US dollars in 2006, 15.6% more than in 2005.  Officials are also forecasting that some 4.1 million tourists will arrive at the country’s main international airport Ezeiza, up from the 3.7 million in 2005 and the 3.3 million in 2004.  Said Tourism Under-secretary Daniel Aguilera in a recent statement, “Argentina is experiencing a very good tourism boom and every year results exceed forecasts,” adding, “the (2002) devaluation provided a huge boost for the Argentine tourism sector, especially to attract tourists from neighboring countries.”  However, Aguilera concedes that the government needs to take further measures in order to sustain this growth.  In addition to the Federal Strategic Tourism Plan 2016, some 500 million US dollars should be invested this year in various types of tourism accommodation and new airlines.

 

Venezuela Postpones Decision to Suspend US Airlines

 

Venezuela has postponed its decision on restrictions of U.S. carriers until April 25, pending the result of a safety audit by the FAA.  The announcement from the country’s INAC aviation agency came one month after its initial warning that it would suspend flights by American Airlines, Continental Airlines, and Delta Airlines if the FAA did not lift its decade-old restrictions on Venezuelan air carriers. 

 

Ryanair Joins Mexican Low Cost Carrier

 

Ryanair, Europe’s biggest low-cost airline, has partnered with one of Mexico’s largest bus companies, IAMSA, to create a new, no-frills air carrier targeting travelers with families in the US.  The airline, whose commercial name is still to be decided, could launch as early as September 2006 and transport as many as 1.5 million passengers during its first year of operation. Routes will be designed to reach US cities with large Hispanic populations and could include San Diego, Houston, Los Angeles, and Chicago.  Currently, the Mexican airline industry carries around 30 million passengers.

 

GOL Rules Internet

 

Brazil’s low cost carrier, GOL, finished 2005 as one of the country’s largest e-commerce companies for the second year in a row.  Internet ticket sales accounted for 81% of GOL’s total revenue in 2005.  GOL has embraced the latest technology by eliminating traditional paper tickets and introducing online reservations and passenger check-in, all of which are helping the airline to operate under a low cost, low fare model. 

 

Peru: World Bank Approves $60 Million for Electrification

 

The World Bank recently approved a $50 million loan and a $10 million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for Peru to increase and improve access to electricity services in rural areas.  According to World Bank figures, more than six million people in the predominantly poor rural areas of Peru do not have access to electricity.  With 30% coverage, Peru has one of the lowest rural electrification rates in Latin America. This past month, the World Bank also approved $30 million to support rural development in Guatemala and close to $30 million to help improve Jamaica’s inner-city communities.

 

Brazil 7th Most Enterprising Country in the World

 

In a study conducted by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), which measures the level of entrepreneurship in 37 nations, Venezuela and Brazil, ranked sixth and seventh most enterprising countries in the world, respectively.  In the case of Brazil, the country has more than 13 million enterprises that have been in operation for up to three and a half years.  It seems small businesses there are also lasting longer, sixty percent surviving between 10 and 15 years.  Participation of women is on the rise, as well.  According to the GEM study, female entrepreneurship in Brazil is the seventh most active in the world, behind only Venezuela, Thailand, Jamaica, New Zealand, and China.

 

Argentina Bans Beef

 

Earlier this past month, Argentina, the world’s 3rd largest beef exporter, suspended most beef exports for 180 days in order to curb rising domestic beef prices and to fight inflation.   Economy Minister Felisa Miceli said that as a result of this measure, some 600,000 tonnes of beef should reenter the domestic market, which has been faced this last year with rising consumer demand and consequently higher prices.  Combined with overall inflation, Argentina’s middle and working class spending power in regards to beef has been stifled to the extent that the staple, central to the Argentine culture, has become almost entirely unaffordable.  The government expects that the surplus beef will help bring prices back down to a consumer friendly level.  Exports guaranteed in bilateral accords and high-quality beef exports to Europe are excluded from the measure.

 

Costa Rica Elects Nobel Peace Prize Winner

 

This month, Oscar Arias Sanchez, recipient of the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize, was declared winner of Costa Rica’s presidential election.  Sanchez, who previously served as president of the Central American nation from 1986 to 1990, won by a slim margin of 18,000 votes.  As a supporter of CAFTA-DR, it appears that one of his first moves in office will be to reopen talks.  Costa Rica is the only Central American country included under CAFTA-DR to not yet have ratified the agreement.  Until his recent victory, Oscar Arias Sanchez served as honorary head of the International Graduate University for Peace in Chonan, South Korea.

 

Mexico Discovers New Oilfield

 

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (UPI) -- An oilfield that may rival Mexico’s largest has been discovered offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. The field, which President Vicente Fox said might be larger than the famed Cantarell oil field, is said to be more than three miles below the water’s surface. Mexico is the second largest provider of oil to the United States behind Canada, however, production levels at Cantarell have fallen off in recent years.

 

El Salvador Stages First Latin American Special Olympic Games

 

The first Latin America Special Olympic Games is currently being held in La Palma, El Salvador, March 27-April 2nd.  More than 500 athletes are competing in a wide range of events, including athletics, basketball, soccer, gymnastics, weightlifting, swimming, tennis, and equestrian sports.  Organizers chose the picturesque town of La Palma, located 34 miles outside San Salvador, because it hosted the first round of peace talk in 1984 which led to the end of El Salvador’s civil war.

 

Smoking Ban Trends across Latin America

 

According to a 2004 study conducted by the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, secondhand smoke was found in 94% of all public spaces in Latin America.  Despite these statistics, however, restrictions on smoking were rarely contemplated.  The first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to place any ban on public smoking was Cuba in early 2005.  Still, with nearly half of Cubans smokers, the law was not easily enforced.  But now, it seems the tide in the debate is turning, and smoking bans, which until recently were encountered only in North America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim, are sweeping Latin America.   Chile has introduced limits on smoking in bars, restaurants, and other public places, and has prohibited the sale of cigarettes within 100 yards of schools.  Puerto Rico has signed a law banning smoking in most enclosed public spaces and vehicles.  And this month, Uruguay banned smoking in public spaces completely, making it the toughest restriction of its kind in the region.  Argentina has also banned smoking in municipal buildings, and is contemplating further measures like the regulation of tobacco advertisement.

 

Bono Receives Chile’s Highest Art Award

 

U2 front man and latest Nobel Peace Prize nominee Bono left an indelible impression when the Irish rock band toured Latin America this past month.  While in Santiago, the musician and active humanitarian received the country’s highest award for the arts, the Pablo Neruda Award.  Bono also met with Argentine president Nestor Kirchner while performing in Buenos Aires.  In Brazil, Bono spoke with President Lula da Silva and donated one of his guitars to a benefit auction for the anti-hunger initiative Zero Hunger.

 

DID YOU KNOW?

 

World’s Third Tallest Waterfall in Peruvian Rainforest

 

This past month, cameras captured rare footage of the world’s third tallest waterfall, discovered in 2002 by German explorer Stefan Ziemendorff and his team of Peruvian investigators in a remote section of the Peruvian Amazon.  Named Gocta Falls after the nearest village, the impressive cascade had remained unmarked and unknown until four years ago, even to those living close by, because of local legend that designated the area as mystical and haunted.  At a height of 2530 feet, Gocta Falls is surpassed only by Salto del Angel in Venezuela and South Africa’s Tugela Falls.