The growth in life expectancy generates multiple market opportunities for groups of people over 50, who generally have higher budgets to spend, but are often excluded from brand messages.
According to reports from CentralAmericaData, so far in the 21st century life expectancy at birth has increased in all Central American countries.
Current policies against global warming are generating higher energy costs hurting the poorest in particular.
An article by Bjørn Lomborg, published in Nacion.com, notes that "Energy generation using solar and wind power received $6o billion in grants in 2012 alone. This means that the world spent $60 billion more on energy than was necessary. And as the climate benefit achieved amounted to a mere $1.4 billion, this means basically that $58.6 billion of the subsidies was wasted. In addition, a further $19 billion in subsidies was spent on biofuels which basically provide no climate benefit. All that money could have been used to improve health care, hire more teachers, make better roads or reduce taxes. "
Guatemalan Entrepreneurs are asking for the consultations with communities about the environmental impact of mining and infrastructure projects to be regulated.
The Guatemalan Chamber of Industry (CIG) and the Union of Extractive Companies (GEE) has proposed the creation of a regulation governing community consultations, believing that these should be one more indicator in the approval process, and should not be binding in nature.
Billions of dollars that alleviate poverty but put conditions on the productive development of Central American countries.
Taking the example of El Salvador, whose economy over the last 20 years has received $40 billion dollars sent by Salvadorans from abroad, an article by Roberto Flores in Alainet.org points to the extraordinary influence of the phenomenon in reducing the poverty-despite the stagnation of the Salvadoran economy-but also its involvement in the country's productive matrix.
The Central American population will grow by eleven million over the next 15 years, at different rates depending on the country.
Fourth State of the Region Report, Social News:
The Central American population will increase by about eleven million over the next fifteen years while in the last ten years it has increased by almost seven million people.
The Fourth State of the Region Report examines the society, demography, economy, environment, and political integration of the seven Central American countries.
The Fourth State of the Region report is divided into four sections and ten chapters.
The first section is entitled "Regional Overview", and its main purpose is to track recent developments in Central America based on a platform of comprehensive and current indicators.
Projections have been released by the Ministry of Planning on cities, water, energy, population, employment, production, economic development priorities, education, land use, safety, infrastructure and logistics.
With the title "Guatemala 2032, A Vision for the new Katun", the Ministry of Planning and Programming of the Presidency (Segeplan) has presented a document that attempts to visualise Guatemala over 20 years, and the stages within this transition.
The project will cost approximately $22 million will be held during the month of March or August.
A statement from the Presidency of Guatemala reads:
The president of the republic, Otto Perez Molina, said on Sunday after a Cabinet session, that in 2013 there will be a census of population and housing nationwide. He added that mapping tests are currently being conducted in different departments.
Out of all the countries on the isthmus, only Panama’s Human Development Index follows the upward trend set by Latin America and the Caribbean.
Since the 1990 publication of the Human Development Index (HDI), the number has shown an upward trend for the vast majority of nations. This overall positive trend has been exceeded by some countries, such as South Korea and China, while others, such as Zimbabwe and Lesotho, have actually moved in a negative direction.
According to the UN Development Program (UNDP) index, within Central America Panama comes first at no. 58 followed by Costa Rica (69), El Salvador (105), Honduras (121), Nicaragua (129) and Guatemala at no. 131.
While Panama's ranking has moved up one spot since the last time the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) was published, Costa Rica and Honduras have slipped back a place.
Latin America is barely ahead of Africa in quality standards and conditions affecting local businesses.
As a region, Central America, is located in the second half of the list entitled ‘Doing Business 2012’.
Doing Business 2012, a report by the World Bank this year added a new area of analysis, which is the ease of obtaining an electrical connection, along with the traditional items which include: ease of starting a business, management of construction permits, registering property , getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, cross border trade, enforcing contracts, and insolvency resolution.
FUNDESA compares international indexes of Central American countries and provides suggestions and actions to promote development in Guatemala.
The Foundation for the Development of Guatemala (FUNDESA) presents, as a balance for 2010, an index comparison with other Central American countries and lists 5 groups considered priority actions when promoting better development conditions for Guatemala, expecting better index evaluations for the future:
Position in 2010 Rankings: Panama 72 (62 in 2009), El Salvador 86 (80), Guatemala 101 (100), Nicaragua 117 (119), Costa Rica 125 (121), Honduras 131 (128).
With the exception of Nicaragua, which rose two places, the Doing Business 2011 ranking shows that easiness of doing business in the Central American countries has deteriorated, at least in relation to other countries.
In the Global Human Development Index 2010, Panama is ranked 54, Costa Rica 62, El Salvador 90, Honduras 106, Nicaragua and Guatemala 115 and 116 respectively.
The Central American countries, like others in Latin America, continue to improve in most variables measuring human development and the HDI Program published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
The crisis has been worsened by higher food prices, bad bean and wheat harvests caused by drought and less remittances.
A contributing factor is the movement of agricultural human resources, which has caused excess labor supply in some regions. This happened in addition to last year's drought, which destroyed 90% of wheat and bean crops, basic components in the daily diet of Guatemalans.