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Expo Espana 2001 to take place next month in San Pedro Sula

By SUYAPA CARIAS

More than 30 Spanish companies covering 20 different sectors and services will participate in the Primer Foro Empresarial Espanol en Honduras Expo Espana 2001 (First Spanish Business Forum in Honduras - Expo Spain 2001), scheduled for Oct. 4-6 in San Pedro Sula.
The announcement was made last week in Tegucigalpa during a press conference held by representatives of the Spanish government, the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Honduras and the Hotel Escuela Madrid.

"This will be a golden opportunity for Honduran business people to see the products and services that their Spanish counterparts can offer them," said Jose Javier Nagore, Spanish Ambassador to Honduras.

Maria Isabel Rodriguez, the chamber's general manager, said that among the products and services involved in Expo Spain 2001 are construction machinery, office furniture, textiles, electronics, shoes, fire equipment, wines, sausages, publications, bakery products and tourism and hospitality services.

"It is much easier to establish commercial contacts when businesspeople are present with their products," said Rodriguez.

TRADE AND ASSISTANCE
According to statistics provided by Maria Simo Sevilla, economic attache at the Spanish Embassy, Spain exported $47.1 million to Honduras in machinery and equipment, ceramic products, electrical supplies, pharmaceuticals and publications last year.

Honduras, on the other hand, exported $38.8 million to Spain. More than 50 percent of this amount corresponds to coffee exports, and nearly 30 percent are sea products. "Honduran exports to Spain are focused mostly on a few products with low added value," said Simo.

With regards to assistance provided by the Spanish government to the hurricane reconstruction process, she said Spain has earmarked a total of $150 million since November 1998. A considerable amount of these funds have been used to finance infrastructure, electricity and social projects, she added.

GASTRONOMICAL TRIP
In addition to the exhibit, the Expo Spain 2001 program will include puppet performances and wine and sausage tasting. Salvador Corroto, director of Hotel Escuela Madrid, said the school will participate in this latter event.
He said the hotel school will also be in charge of preparing the menu for the three-day event and Chef Emilio Mojon will offer cooking lessons.

Traditional Spanish dishes and beverages such as tortilla de patata, tejas de limón, gazpacho, salmorejo cordobes, crema catalana and other delights from the Madre Patria will be prepared.

Expo Spain 2001 has been previously organized in other Latin American countries including Chile and Guatemala, but this will be the first time it is held in Honduras. For more information, call the Spanish Chamber of Commerce at (504) 553-4092, 553-4126, fax (504) 553-4176, e-mail: <camacoes@hn2.com>.

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Internet forum created to support business community in Honduras

By MARCO CACERES
Special to Honduras This Week

When projecthonduras.com was created in 1998, we opted to focus on economic and social development issues. We made a conscious decision not to focus on politics... for many reasons, which I will not go into.
As the webmaster for the projecthonduras.com website, I've tried to include information in the site that is of interest to both the business community and those interested primarily in aid (note that these are not necessarily mutually exclusive). Clearly, though, the efforts of projecthonduras.com, particularly through its forum listservs (see http://www.projecthonduras.com/network.htm) has been aid, notably as it relates to education and health care. It has just worked out that we have tended not to focus much on business-related issues.

In the past few weeks, however, I have started to think more about the need for finding a way to create an ongoing dialogue within the business community in Honduras. The growing crime situation is a concern in-and-of-itself, but also because of its potential negative impact on the tourism and maquiladora industries. The drastic drop in coffee prices is also a concern with regard to the coffee industry.

I keep asking myself, "How much worse can the crime situation get before tourists simply stop going to Honduras for their vacations?" and "Why couldn't we have foreseen the advent of cheap coffee from Asia? Aren't there expert market analysts in Honduras tracking coffee production in the world, warning about the need to invest in another cash crop?"

It doesn't take a genius to see that all the volunteer efforts to help improve access to education and health care are going to be made that much harder if you have hundreds of thousands of newly unemployed Hondurans walking around.

It is my central belief that we have to lay the groundwork for a better Honduras in the future by investing in education and health care. But, at least in the short-term, Hondurans need to have jobs with which to provide for their families -- jobs that are available now. Until lots and lots more Hondurans receive a serious education and enough professional training to write their own tickets in life, they will need to rely on the industries that exist in the country. Thus, I certainly feel we need to find ways to keep those businesses healthy and competitive.

With this in mind, projecthonduras.com has set up yet another listserv called the "Honduras Business Support Forum." The website for this forum is at <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/honduras-business>.
To subscribe to the forum, just send a blank e-mail to
<honduras-business-subscribe@yahoogroups.com>.

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