29 Mar
Posted by Brian Anderson as Finance Help
The persistent delay to infrastructure projects in Peru is primarily due to weak coordination between government entities, Oscar Arrs, a partner at local law firm Rubio Legua Normand, told BNamericas.
“The government created [private investment promotion agency] ProInversin to speed up projects but ProInversin has to deal with ministries and entities such as [Lima's state-owned water utility] Sedapal, among others,” Arrs said.
“The housing ministry, for example, has no experience with trusts or financing. Sedapal has some trusts but it doesn’t have enough control and is not up to speed,” he added.
These factors make it difficult to set things up and cause project delays. “Things are just not crystal clear,” Arrs said.
ProInversin was created in 2000 and its first concession agreements were drawn up when the entity had very little experience.
29 Mar
Posted by Brian Anderson as Finance Help
Operations at Venezuelan steelmaker Sidetur, a subsidiary of local steel company Sivensa, have been suspended for 12 days and counting because of a strike at the Puerto Ordaz plant where workers are demanding compensation for health and safety issues.
“Inpsasel [Venezuela's labor safety, health and prevention institute] came to the plant and certified that the company is still not meeting safety and hygiene requirements there,” a Sidetur worker told BNamericas.
According to the worker, the situation is further proof that the government needs to take control of the plant.
Employees had previously asked the government to nationalize the plant. “Up to now we haven’t received any response, so we’re organizing a march in Puerto Ordaz so that they will listen to our demands,” the worker added.
A Sidetur official told BNamericas that the strike is illegal and the company is taking steps to charge those behind it.
29 Mar
Posted by Brian Anderson as Finance Help
A tender to build the second phase of the Macrobús bus rapid transit (BRT) system in Mexico’s Jalisco state capital Guadalajara will be launched in April, national infrastructure fund Fonadin director Federico Patiño told BNamericas.
The project will cost some 2.8bn pesos (US$214mn), of which national development bank Banobras will provide 50% through Fonadin, with 45% coming from the awardee and the remaining 5% from Jalisco state government.
The tender involves building the 32km BRT line, as well as its operation and maintenance over a 17-year period under a public service provision (PPS) contract. The system will run along state highway 126 in Zapopan municipality.
Macrobús is one of several BRT projects in the pipeline for 2010, according to Patiño. Similar projects in Monterrey, Chihuahua and Mexcali are all slated to come out in the coming months, the Fonadin director said.
29 Mar
Posted by Brian Anderson as Finance Help
Mining companies across the globe have taken advantage of the crisis to strengthen their business processes using technology and Colombian mining companies should not ignore this trend, Juan Carlos Lpez, the Andean region director of US IT and business consultancy Neoris, told BNamericas.
“The only way that companies are going to be able to stay competitive is by using their information systems to facilitate decision-making and business processes, which in turn will allow them to become more competitive locally and internationally,” he said.
Although there are numerous opportunities to apply business strategies based on technology in Colombia and the country has access to the technological tools to become competitive in the region, “this doesn’t necessarily mean that these tools are being taken advantage of in the best possible way,” Lpez said.
29 Mar
Posted by Brian Anderson as Finance Help
US equipment and satellite services provider EchoStar Corporation plans to use its newly acquired rights to use Ku-band capacity in Mexico to deliver fixed satellite services for enterprise customers, Marc Lumpkin, EchoStar’s director of corporate communications told BNamericas.
EchoStar announced last week it had acquired rights to use this capacity from SES’s local affiliate, SSM, for its AMC-15 and AMC-16 satellites.
Lumpkin said EchoStar had been looking at numerous ways to expand services in other countries and it now has operations in Mexico and Taiwan as well as the US.
“Using AMC-15 and AMC-16 to deliver services to companies seeking satellite leasing in Mexico is part of our efforts to expand elsewhere,” Lumpkin said.
EchoStar announced the deal with SES just days after a deal to buy a controlling stake in Mexican satellite operator Satmex fell through, after Satmex priority bondholders rejected its US$374mn offer.