In order to facilitate access to inventory credit for SMEs plans are underway to reform the Law flexibilizing on chattel mortgages.
From a press release by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Competitiveness:
"The Cabinet Council has approved a bill that promotes access to credit and modernizes the system of mortgage deposits and has authorized the Minister of Trade and Industry, by Resolution of Cabinet, to present the initiative before the National Assembly.
The phenomenon affects much of Latin America, whose countries spend on average 8% of their GDP on security costs.
That was the conclusion reached during the forum "Connecting businesses as partners for prosperity with security in the Americas", organized by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the private sector, under the framework of the Guatemala Investment Summit.
From 2 to 4 October the VII Forum on Competitiveness in the Americas will be held in Panama, where the hemisphere's leading authorities in the field of economy, trade and industry will gather together.
From a press release issued by the Presidency of Honduras:
Panama will host the VII Competitiveness Forum of the Americas, which brings together representatives that make up the Inter-American Competitiveness Network and the hemisphere's leading authorities in the field of economy, trade and industry, to be held in the month of October.
On 18th and 19th of April Latin American small hoteliers in Costa Rica will meet to discuss issues such as competitiveness, promotion and marketing, and accommodation in small centers.
"Owners of small hotels in the Latin American region with a minimum of five rooms and a maximum of 50 will gather together on 18th and 19th of April at the Hotel Radisson Zurquí in Barrio Tournon," reported Elfinancierocr.com.
The country will host the next continental summit in 2015, a good business opportunity for tourism and hospitality.
The hemisphere's foreign ministers, meeting in the XLII General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), today (Tuesday 5 June) elected Panama to host the Seventh Summit of the Americas, to be held in 2015, reported the organization in a press release.
This year El Salvador will attend the OAS’s Inter-American Congress. The main theme is to develop business competitiveness as a tool for tourism development.
The OAS announced the following on its website:
The XIX Inter-American Travel Congress to be held in San Salvador, El Salvador, on 29 and 30 September, 2011 will focus on the following theme "Tourism, a challenge to poverty." Other important issues, such as the importance of public-private partnerships to promote investment and development for the tourism sector, tourism and cultural heritage, social responsibility of enterprises in the tourism industry and the challenges for sustainable tourism will also be discussed in plenary sessions.
CEOs and senior executives have pledged to expand trade and investment in view of the global economic slowdown.
Central America and the Caribbean together represent a market of approximately 56 million people. According to the Secretary General Albert Ramdin, it is time to exploit all business opportunities and implement specific initiatives to expand trade and investment between both regions.
In Honduras, a inflexible Latin American diplomacy failed, forcing the intervention of the only country capable of forcing an agreement.
The agreement negotiated by Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon is a testimony of the considerable influence that Washington still has over Latin America, despite verbal attempts by Chávez and other leaders of the region to undermine it.
The editorial at Nacion.com remarks: "if all that is left is poses, angry reactions and more inflexibility, Zelaya's presence could be the trigger that was needed for real violence".
"No agreement will be possible unless Latin America's democratic countries nullify the distorting actions of Hugo Chávez, so diplomatic initiatives are not based on ideological intentions but democratic objectives.
President Micheletti reaffirmed Honduras intention to carry out elections in November, in front of a commission of OAS chancellors.
According to BBC Mundo, Micheletti stated that elections will be held November 29th, 'whether the countries of the world recognize us or not. We are not afraid to anyone's embargo. We can move forwards without the support of any of you', in reference to the decision by some governments to break relations and cancel agreements with Honduras.
Mario Vargas Llosa writes on the serious political situation in Honduras, with his renowned objectivity and analytic capacity.
The Peruvian writer brings us a critical vision of the positions of the two battling sides, drafting a solution similar to the one proposed by Costa Rican president Oscar Arias.
"Awakening a constitutionally elected president with bayonets, and sending him to exile without giving him even a chance of changing his pajamas, as was done by the Honduran military to Manuel Zelaya, is an act of political barbarism..."
More than twenty ministers of foreign affairs from 13 countries in the Americas have confirmed that they will attend the meeting in Panama next week.
The meeting, called "The Road to prosperity in the Americas," will be head by the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and will be held at a beach hotel close to the Panamanian capital, according to a release from the Panama Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The Puebla-Panama Plan is to be stripped of 95 percent of its projects in order to make it viable, Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa said at a meeting in Medellín of the seven countries involved.
The plan was launched by Mexico in 2001 in an effort to promote prosperity in southern Mexico and Central America. But it had taken on more projects than it could handle, Espinosa said.
Panama joined the Hemispheric Information Exchange Network for Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters and Extradition.
The agreement was signed for Panama by Justice Minister Daniel Delgado Diamante and for the Organization of American States (OAS) by Jean-Michel Arrighi, the OAS Secretary for Judicial Affairs.
The signing took place during the seventh Inter-American Meeting of Justice Ministers (REMJA VII), which is being held in Washington.