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BUSINESS & ECONOMICS |
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OPPORTUNITY |
Monday, January 30, 2006 Online Edition 4 |
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Russia signs WTO protocols with Honduras Russia's acension to the World Trade Organisation is one step closer after signing final protocols with Honduras and the Dominican Republic. According to Russia's chief negotiator, Maxim Medvedkov, Russia was also to hold talks with Switzerland on Wednesday, January 25, on its entry in to the international organisation. The talks were to be held in Davos, Switzerland. Medvedkov also hoped his country would be able to sign final protocol agreements with Brazil. Russia has conducted accession talks with 52 of the 58 WTO member countries, with negotiations continuing with the United States, Australia and Colombia. -Domincan Today Amcham seeks
new investment The missions have been formulated within the framework of the CAFTA agreement between Cnetral America, Dominican Republic and the United States. Ricardo Alvarez, re-elected president of AmCham-Honduras, a strategic alliance to generate greater investment within Central America, announced the missions, saying that visits to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala provide the best opportunity to encourage and promote greater investment in key Honduran industries. According to Alvarez, businessmen from the United States inspecting the industries alongside local industrialists and civil employees allow them to consider more closely the investment opportunities and products on offer. The mission should work both ways, with Honduran investors encouraged to travel to the States to extend and strengthen commercial and investment ties with North America. AmCham of Guatemala and El Salvador are currently planning eight commercial missions to the United States. -El Heraldo 180 personnel
fired The drastic measure could extend to other sectors, following the recommendation by the president-elect Manuel Zelaya of a 10 per cent reduction in the expenses of all the secretariats. Hernandez says he will fulfill the decree of the new president, meaning 180 of the 1800 employees of the sector will be dismissed. "This secretariat has a personnel overload and its payment represents 80 per cent of the budget and that is not possible," Hernandez said. According to Hernandez, the nature of the secretariat and its reliance on the cultivation of the land means that the majority of those sacked will be office personnel. Technicians are likely to remain in their positions. The urgent cost
cutting measures were set to be considered as soon as the change over
of government on Friday, Hernandez said. -El Heraldo
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Monday, January 23, 2006 Online Edition 3 |
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New technology helps Honduras connect By Alexandra Winton Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP is a fast growing technology in many parts of the world, but it seems to have to barely penetrated Honduras. In fact, walk into one of the many internet cafes in Tegucigalpa, and you are more likely to see people using the regular phone service offered by such businesses, despite the fact that this service is more expensive, and often of poorer quality. Abram Huyser Honig knows this. The 23-year-old from Grand Rapids, Michigan, has been living and working for an NGO in Tegucigalpa for a year now and VoIP is the only way he calls his brother, grandmother and parents back home. Honig uses SkypeOut, a service offered by Skype Technologies SA, created by the makers of the popular music-sharing software Kazaa. SkypeOut allows the user to call any telephone, anywhere in the world through a computer. With Skype you can use your computer to call another computer with the program, for free. All you need is a set of headphones with a microphone (around US$30, sometimes offered for free by internet cafes) and within minutes you can turn your computer in to a telephone; a very cheap telephone. Honig pays only about 1 cent per minute to call his family back home, plus the internet costs of the café. Internet telephony, established in the mid-1990´s, allows for such cheap calls because the technology bypasses the switch systems of telephone networks, eliminating per-minute tariffs. Ricardo Suazo, owner of Cybertec internet café, in Tegucigalpa explained that VoIP technology turns sound into packets of data, which are then sent very quickly through the internet, reaching another computer that decodes the data back into sound. After hearing about Skype from other foreign volunteers, Honig decided to try it out. "It was super simple," said Honig "and I found that the signal through Skype is way better and cheaper than regular phone lines." "I'm sure among the ex-pat community it will keep catching up more and more, but it'll be slower with Hondurans," added Honig. He knows only one Honduran family who uses Skype, and he introduced them to it. "They were really excited when I told them about it," he said. The family can now talk with a sister living in the United States, who they could not afford to call previously. In fact, so few Hondurans use Skype that Honig says he usually recognizes most user names registered on internet café computers, as the names of his friends working in Tegucigalpa. Some are looking to technology like VoIP to help overcome the digital divide, or technology gap in countries such as Honduras. While Honduras may still be behind in offering older technology, like landlines, technology like VoIP may help Hondurans to catch up. Until December 25, 2005 Hondutel, a state-owned company operated a monopoly of the telephone system in Honduras. Just getting a landline could take months, as there were waiting lists thousands of names long and long-distance rates were extremely high. In 2004, 5.57 out of every 100 people had a telephone main line, while 10.10 out of every 100 Hondurans were cellular telephone subscribers, according to the International Telecommunication Union. This monopoly has been lifted and long-distance rates are falling, but cheaper technology like VoIP still has not quite caught on. Suazo said he gets only about two customers a week using Skype in his internet cafe. "Not too many people know how to use it, maybe their relatives in other countries are the same, they are not accustomed to the technology," he said. While he only gets a few customers a week using Skype, Suazo said he gets all types of people using internet in his café. Peak hours are in the evening, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and he has people from students to ladies in their 60s coming in. Because of the popularity of internet, Suazo can see VoIP helping to bridge the technology gap, "I think internet telephony will catch on. Internet, step by step is spreading in Honduras." When he does see people using Skype in his internet café, he can see its potential. "Because of the high phone prices, people lost contact with their relatives.I have seen people coming here to call their relatives for the fist time in five years," said Suazo. He sees a link between families being restored by this new, accessible technology. Perhaps VoIP has the potential to help bridge the gap in technology, as well as the gap between families.
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CNBS asks for 672.2 million Lempiras The National Commission of Banks and Insurance (CNBS) has demanded the immediate capitalization of 672.2 million Lempiras from the National Bank of Agriculture Development (Banadesa) in order to prevent its closure. In a press conference, Enrique Castejón, president of Banadesa, exposed the precarious and historical nature of the way the financial institution operates. Castejón is against the CNBS applying the principle of "business in march" to the bank as this indicates that the organization is presumed to be in permanent existence, except for some specifications. The figures of their financial statements will represent historical values, or modifications of them, which have been systematically obtained. The civil employee of Banadesa wants CNBS to distinguish its current administration from the previous ones, due to an apparent economic recuperation, which saved the bank from closure. Nine days from the assumption of power of the new government, Castejón recommended that the authorities help the financial recuperation of Banadesa, but if not possible then the bank should be closed. "The CNBS asked us to put into place an enormous amount of financial reserves, despite the recuperation of the bank and its social mission," he said. The exigencies of the commission would jeopardize the total reserves and patrimony and with it would commit the State to put new contributions of capital in place. El Heraldo Chiquita closes banana farm The damage caused by Tropical Storm Gamma has caused the banana producer, Chiquita, to close some of its farms. The Tibombo and Buenos Amigos farms, and a part of another farm were badly hit with the majority of plants remaining under water for so long that they died. Banana plants on many other farms in the San Pedro Sula region also sustained significant damage from which it will take several months to recover, which they will after the company's commitment to invest in repairs. Saving the Tibombo and Buenos Amigos farms would have taken a substantial investment of several million dollars and almost a year of commitment before production could be restored. This, along with the fact that the farms have flooded before, and their cost structure, meant an economically viable project for rehabilitating these areas was not possible. Consequently, Chiquita had to take the decision to close these farms and communicated their decision to the local union leadership of Sitraterco (representing workers at Tibombo) and Sitrasurco (representing workers at Buenos Amigos), COLSIBA and the IUF in accordance with labor agreements. In addition, the company held discussions with and sought the advice of the Honduran government, including a conversation between President Ricardo Maduro and the CEO Fernando Aguirre, to ensure that they understood the situation and the company's commitment to reinvest in most of the damaged farms, but to close the two farms where rehabilitation was not viable. Freshplaza.com Honduras' entry into CAFTA delayed The Honduran Manufacturers Association (AHM) have signaled that the country will not be able to incorporate itself into the CAFTA agreement with the United States as had been expected, as the Congress have yet to approve the required reforms. "It is sad because if CAFTA was in place there would be more economic movement in the country," declared the executive director of AHM, Henry Fransen. CAFTA was meant to have come in to force January 1, 2006 but the United States delayed its application until between February and March for the countries that are ready. Fransen explained that within the prerequisites still to be achieved in Honduras are the regulation to elaborate generic medicines, the regulation of customs procedures, safeguards procedures that had not originally been contemplated, the Fitosanitaria Law and revisions to the Intellectual and Industrial Property Laws. La Prensa |
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Monday, January 16, 2006 Online Edition 2 |
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Gas price U-turn On Sunday, January 8 the Government of Honduras made a U-turn on their decision to increase the price of gas between 70 and 75 centavos of a Lempira, as was announced the previous Saturday, an official source informed. The increase could have come into being at 6am local time on Sunday, but the president of Honduras, Ricardo Maduro, ordered a last minute change to the plan, informed a spokesman from the Technical Unit of Oil (UTP). He added that with the reformed law the price of a gallon (3.8 litres) of diesel would only increase 17 cents of a Lempira (one cent of a dollar), while super and regular gas will slightly decrease in price, as will kerosene gas. The new price structure will lower by nine Cents of a Lempira (less than half a Cent of a Dollar) per gallon the price of regular gas, fixing it at 3.27 Dollars. Superior gas will go down three Cents of a Dollar, subsequently costing 3.46 dollars. The lowering of the price of kerosene gas is almost two Cents of a Dollar, leaving the price of a gallon at 2.49 dollars. Domestic liquid gas, which was to be the most effected by Saturday's announcement, will maintain its price of 11.27 Dollars per 25-pound canister (11.3 kg). The announcement on Saturday had caused much bad feeling in different sectors of society directed against the government of Ricardo Maduro. - La Prensa SA Buy-out of two Honduran banks Executives of the El Salvadorian Cuscatlán Bank, one of the two most secure financial institutions of Central America, continue discussions from last year with the owners of Aseguradora Hondureña (Honduran Insurances) and the Asociación de Ahorro y Crédito la Constancia (Association of Savings and Credit), informed an official source. The president of the Honduran Council of Private Businesses, José María Agurcia, owns the first business and Johny Kafati owns the second. According to sources negotiations are at an advanced stage and the sale of the referred businesses could get the go ahead next week (beginning January 15), on the agreement of a price to be offered by Cuscatlán and acceptable to the local businesses. Investigations indicate that Cuscatlán will acquire these two Honduran businesses through Seguros e Inversiones SA (Savings and Investments SA), one of the largest insurance firms in El Salvador. The president of the National Commission of Banks and Savings (CNBS), Ana Cristina Mejía, did not deny or affirm that any transaction was taking place between Cuscatlán and La Aseguradora Hondureña, or between Cuscatlán and la Constancia. - El Heraldo Lempira will devalue less that 1% The loss of value of the Lempira in comparison with the Dollar this year will be less than 1 percent, according to the president of the Honduran Central Bank (BCH), María Elena Mondragón, who regards one of the greatest current economic political achievements to have been achieving low rates of depreciation for the national currency. During the period 2002-2004, the rate of devaluation was maintained at 5 percent, but last year closed with a rate of 1.6 percent, equal to 30 cents, converting the exchange rate from 18.59 Lempiras per US Dollar to 18.89. For 2006, it is expected that the level of depreciation will oscillate between 20 and 30 Cents, less than 1 percent. The economic situation of
the country makes it anticipated that the Lempira will maintain a minimum
level of depreciation during 2006, according to Mondragón, but
she denies that a fixed level of change has been reached, as certain
members of the productive sector have called for. - El Heraldo |
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| Monday, January 9, 2006 Online Edition 1 | ||
Banana
workers strike Another of the reasons for the strike action is the labor persecution that the president of the syndicate of Ameribi, Gustavo Castro, has been subject to. He was given 16 days suspension as a punishment which, according to colleagues, were without any justification. The president of the Coordination of Banana and Agro industrial Syndicates (Cosibah), German Zepeda, indicated that the two banana farms are affiliated to this organization, and although they have sent various communications to begin negotiations, up until this point they have not had any positive response. Zepeda claimed Tela violated the international conventions signed with the International Organization for Food and with the Latin American Coordinator as they did not give any reason for the dismissals nor give any warning of the coming action. "The workers are ready to negotiate at any time but we understand that the transnational went before the Ministry of Employment and but did not come up with any positive response for the fired workers," said Zepeda. - El Heraldo Minimum wage
negotiations According to the business sector this measure is due to the need to reduce speculation, that occurs every time the two sides meet to discuss a rise to the minimum wage, which today rests between 2,500 and 3,000 Lempiras. It has been mentioned that the workers sector would make an application for the minimum wage to be increased to 6,000 Lempiras. In addition, they would not justify a hold up to negotiations due to the recent price freeze on basic necessities. The Secretary of Employment will also be present at the negotiations to mediate between the two opposing sectors, bearing in mind that the adjustment process will take several months. - El Heraldo Celtel lowers
prices for phoning US Before the cost of phoning the United States was 83 cents per minute, but now it will cost 38 cents, informed Antonio Tavel, executive of TIGO. "These are the lowest tariffs in the market," he added. The price cut was not made earlier because the National Commission of Telecommunications (Conatel) did not allow them to carry out tests before December 25, the date when the market for international phone calls was opened. "This is the start and we hope to lower still more prices in the coming days," informed Tavel. He proclaimed himself in favor of the approval of the Telecommunications Law because it will regulate a market where there are two cell phone companies, and perhaps a third that could be Hondutel, and 23 fixed line companies.Taval denied fears that the open market will cause a loss of 70 million dollars annually for Hondutel, stating that this would be true in a static market but the price of international phone calls is reducing and more companies will invest. - El Heraldo |
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