Businesses recommended the Government to withdraw funds contributed by Honduras to BCIE's capital.
Such action is demanded in response to a decision by the Central American Economic Integration Bank (BCIE) to freeze funds headed to the country, a move deemed as "outrageous" by Amilcar Bulnes, president of the Honduran Council of the Private Enterprise.
When expressing their support, private enterprises proposed an additional 10% income tax.
Leaders of the Honduran Council of Private Enterprises, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Cortés, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Tegucigalpa, the Honduran Federation of Agriculture and Livestock Breeders, among others, expressed their support for Roberto Micheletti's government.
The Salvadorian National Association of Private Companies received its Honduran counterpart, Cohep, to analyze the commercial situation.
The Honduran Private Business Council (Cohep, acronym in Spanish) will provide a presentation about the situation that Honduras is going through and the impact it is having on the business sector with losses in the millions.
Through reform to the labor law, entrepreneurs would be able to create about 250 thousand jobs in a month.
This is what the president of the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP), Amilcar Bulnes, said if the reform would allow them to hire people part-time.
The proposal for half-time work hours, part-time work hours and hourly work would generate about 3 thousand new jobs.
The proposal, submitted to the government by the National Association of Manufacturers, ANDI, would create jobs in manufacturing, security services and call centers, among others, according to what Alejandro Alvarez, vice president of the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP) told Laprensahn.com.
The decrease occurred as a result of the economic crisis and high prices.
This was stated Benjamín Bográn, executive director of the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP), who stated that the decrease is also affecting the local sale of popular food.
COHEP announced that the country is heading towards "a crisis with serious consequences for economic and social well-being."
"On the Eve of a Real Crisis," is what the study submitted by the Honduran Private Enterprise Council is called and it gives warning that unless "urgent and appropriate" action is taken, the decrease in international reserves will cause "uncontrolled inflation with undesirable and unacceptable impacts on poverty, employment and social stability."
As of March 31, the Lácteos de Honduras Company will no longer receive milk in its collection center located on the northern coast of the country.
The president of the Association of Cattlemen of Atlántida, Luis Ramirez, told El Heraldo: "We are extremely concerned because Lacthosa is receiving between 15 and 20 thousand liters of milk daily. The loss of that market will put us in a bind because our main customers are Lacthosa and Leyde."
Of the $212 million total in the Central Bank trust, $23 million have already been handed over between January and February.
Journalist Reynaldo Yanes explained in Laprensahn.com: "Of the $530 million which make up the trust, $212 million belongs to housing sector, urbanization, shopping center and hydroelectric generation projects as reported by the president of Honduran Private Enterprise (COHEP), Alejandro Alvarez. Thanks to this stimulus, the construction industry would be able to recover all of the 25 thousand jobs it has lost since last year when long-term credit lines began to close; a situation that was influenced by the development of the international financial crisis."
They are calling out for an agreement to be signed with the IMF and for adjustments in the application of the new minimum wage rate and in the anti-crisis plan announced by the government.
The Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP) requested the government to confront the crisis that is already affecting Honduras, and to stand a the forefront of a joint effort among all the national sectors, stressing the need to reach a stand-by agreement with the International Monetary Fund. This would allow Honduras access to credit lines for countries in a precarious condition.
COHEP Vice President, Oscar Galeano, said in statements to La Trubuna that "Cuba has characteristics somewhat different from ours, but there is always the chance to explore them and determine the potential degree of consumer purchasing power and competitive advantages."
The Honduran Council of Private Enterprise suspended the protest against the minimum wage increase pending a Supreme Court resolution.
The COHEP decided to wait for a Supreme Court resolution in response to its appeal for an intervention to protect hundreds of businesses. Therefore, “A Day Without Business” will not be held on February 12th, as was expected, and instead it will be postponed until after the court´s decision.
Business organizations have set February 12 as the day when they will close their businesses to protest the increase in minimum wages.
The protest is in addition to a set of measures that the business owners have taken, including hundreds of legal suits against Executive Decree STSS-374.08 which set the minimum wage at 5,500 lempiras ($291) for urban areas and 4,055 ($215) for rural areas.
Business owners have already filed 72 legal suits against the executive decree that increased the minimum wage.
Latribuna.hn reports: "Yesterday there 72 suits in total calling for the suspension of the of the Executive Decree which increased the minimum wage to 5,500 lempiras for urban areas and 4.55 for rural areas, but up to now none of them have been taken up by the Constitutional Branch of the Supreme Court."
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