Business management is the resource which determines the success or failure of a business, and the quality of that management determines, unfailingly, the market.
EDITORIAL
In Costa Ricaastate run bankand anagricultural cooperativehave once again been rescued from insolvency and the mismanagement of their managers, using, as it would not have been possible any other way, money belonging to taxpayers.
Insecurity and excessive red tape remain the main obstacles to the growth of exports, which have lost momentum in the last four years.
From the Survey on Business Competitiveness by Fusades:
FUSADES has carried out the "Business Competitiveness Survey" every year since 2011, interviewing more than 430 micro small, medium and large enterprises.The surveys help to statistically demonstrate the challenges and opportunities in improving growth and employment generation, the only institution in the region that makes such an effort.
In El Salvador, the decision taken by the Sanchez Ceren administration not to attend the main business event in the country reveals either disinclination, inability to govern, or simple political manichaeism.
EDITORIAL
Maybe it is a persistence of visualizing the world as it was in the last century, dividing it into two antagonistic parties, capital on the one hand and labour on the other.
The real entrepreneurs and CEOs do not need a state official, who will never be an entrepreneur, to tell them how to run a company and increase revenues.
EDITORIAL
In Costa Rica, the government continues to believe that state officials can show employers how to do their job and how to generate wealth.
Having failed in its task of promoting favorable conditions in infrastructure, training and availability of human resources, access to credit and facilitating paperwork for the creation and growth of private enterprises, swift and effective commercial trade justice, the pachydermic state apparatus in Costa Rica continues to create bureaucratic organizations to "develop production" and obliterates others that yesterday were touted as the miracle food for the country's development. The new invention, this time from the Solis administration, is the Productive Development Agency, for Innovation and Added Value which of course already has a corresponding and always imaginative short name: FOMPRODUCE.
Businessmen have stated their categorical opposition to statements made by a government official that confuse extortion with the funding of organized crime.
The statements by the Technical Secretary of the Presidency of El Salvador, Roberto Lorenzana, against companies in the country that suffer from extortion caused a strong reaction from the private sector, four days after Industrias La Constancia publicly announced that it was suspending operation of its plants because of increasing insecurity and violence.
From 16 to 18 of November businessmen and government representatives from Latin America will be gathering together at the IX Forum of the Americas on Competitiveness.
From a statement issued by om the Chamber of Industry of Guatemala:
Guatemala, September 22, 2015.- The public and private sectors of the Latin American region will be meeting in Guatemala from 16 to 18 November at the IX Forum of the Americas on Competitiveness, the most important business exchange space which will have more than 1000 attendees.
A World Bank study has evaluated regulations which exist in 22 cities in the region for starting new business, registration, construction, and border trade.
From a statement issued by the World Bank:
Doing Business in Central America and the Dominican Republic 2015 compares business regulations in 6 Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) and the Dominican Republic.
According to the Inter-American Development Bank, broadband access increases company productivity and allows access to more and better information helping decisions to be made efficiently and at less cost.
From a statement issued by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB):
Companies that have adopted broadband operations have increased their productivity by 10 percent on average, according to the McKinsey Global Institute.
The waiting times for export products passing through customs offices in El Salvador increased from 2.8 days on average in 2011 to 4.7 days in 2013.
From a statement by Competitividadelsalvador.org:
The Business Competitiveness Survey (ECE) was conducted for the third time, in which employers provide information on obstacles and opportunities in ten areas critical to compete globally.
The business sector indicates that the country is going through a deep fiscal, economic, social, institutional and public security crisis.
From a statement issued by the National Association of Private Enterprise (ANEP):
The business sector agrees with the feeling of the population expressed in surveys and different areas of opinion regarding the fact that the country is going through a deep fiscal, economic, social, institutional and insecurity crisis.
Product distribution companies in the North of Central America are paying monthly installments of $100 per truck to organized criminal groups.
Far from declining, the cost and problems caused by extortion for companies in Central America, continue to rise and is harming regional trade. In Honduras alone, Eleconomista.net reported, "... between 2012 and 2013 some 18,000 businesses closed because of pressures from gang members and consequently some 72,000 direct jobs were lost."
Businessmen are complaining about excessive bureaucracy and slowness they have to deal with in order to complete the formalities necessary to export their products, and demand to speed them up.
Less paperwork and faster services are what entrepreneurs in El Salvador are calling for in order to stay competitive in the international market and with respect to their Central American counterparts.
Employers point to political instability, energy costs and lack of infrastructure as the main factors keeping out investment and reducing competitiveness.
A survey carried out with employers by the National Association of Private Enterprise (ANEP) showed as its first result the lack of competitiveness of the country in terms of attracting foreign investment, due to uncertainty created by political instability.
Recognized Brazilian company of backhoe loaders, telescopic, articulated and other types of cranes looking for companies interested in representing the brand and distributing their machinery in Central America and Mexico. The company manufactures and sells telescopic,...