Pravda

The Foreign Ministers of Russia and Venezuela, Igor Ivanov and Roy Chaderton Matos, will discuss the situation on the world energy market, official Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told RIA Novosti.

Russia and Venezuela, he said, are among the biggest producers and exporters of oil in the world. "Therefore both states are interested in maintaining stability on the energy market," Yakovenko said.

"We are prepared to continue the constructive dialogue on these matters both with Venezuela and in the framework of a broader multilateral interaction in this sphere," he went on.

Energy opens up most favorable prospects for cooperation between the two countries. A number of big Russian energy companies display interest in taking part in it.

Potentially successful areas of bilateral ties could be also gas production, petrochemistry, coal production and development of transport infrastructure. Russian-Venezuelan cooperation projects in this sphere, which are of mutual interest, are possible.

Yakovenko further said that "the present meeting is an important landmark in the development of political contacts with Venezuela." They have grown most active as a result of the two Moscow visits by President Hugo Chavez and the visit by Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov to Caracas in 2001.

It is noted with satisfaction in Moscow that "the approaches of Russia and Venezuela are close as regards problems of shaping a modern system of international relations based on multi-polarity and respect for international law," the diplomat pointed out.

In his view, the "closeness or our approaches to the key problems of our time provides a firm groundwork for continued cooperation between Russia and Venezuela on a bilateral and multilateral basis."

The visit by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton Matos will last until May 18.

<a href=www.falkland-malvinas.com>MercoPress

The presidents of Uruguay, Jorge Batlle and Argentina, Eduardo Duhalde coincided in the need of a stronger regional integration, starting with a reinvigorated Mercosur that could open the way for trade discussions with United States following the 4+1 model.

Duhalde&Batlle

Argentina and Uruguay, together with Brazil and Paraguay are the four full members of Mercosur and rather skeptical about the United States sponsored Free Trade of the Americans Association, FTAA, given the diversity of countries it includes and the president George Bush administration new agenda of foreign priorities, particularly after the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Iraq conflict.

Although Mr. Duhalde will be stepping down next May 25, he indicated that he was sure his successor had similar ideas regarding the necessity of reinforcing Mercosur and then proceed to gradually include the rest of South America taking advantage of the Andean Countries association that includes Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.

Mr. Batlle said that the 4+1 negotiations is a crucial instrument to “break” with the dependency small countries such as Uruguay have with a long term project such as FTAA.

“If we are to consolidate our democracies, if we are to ensure justice and fairness in our communities we need to know clearly where our trade possibilities with the outer world stand”, stressed Mr. Batlle.

The Uruguayan president also informed Mr. Duhalde of his talks last week end in Brasilia where he met with Brazilian president Lula da Silva.

“President Lula was most enthusiastic with the 4+1 negotiations, and he agreed with me in requesting from the United States trade proposals to be considered at Mercosur level. Mr. Lula said he would attempt a meeting with President Bush either in Washington or Brazil to talk about the issue”, revealed the Uruguayan president.

“4+1 means banging a very important door so we can clearly know if they are willing, or not, to consider all trade issues, not only those that interest the most powerful but all those essential to us; to us the great world suppliers of food, reliable, at better costs and produced in friendlier environmental conditions”, explained Mr. Batlle

tampabay.bizjournals.com Jane Meinhardt Staff Writer

CLEARWATER -- For a mere $15 each, representatives from 21 companies got a glimpse of possibly lucrative business opportunities in Chile.

They tapped into the pool of Chilean business specialists on the public's payroll, got contacts' names and vital information and learned about the country's regulations -- all without leaving the Tampa Bay area.

The business representatives attended the first in a series of videoconferences on international trade spearheaded by George L. Martinez, director of the U.S. Department of Commerce's regional export assistance center in Pinellas County.

The county's economic development technical staff set up the equipment for the conference's satellite link with business specialists in Chile, providing a group and one-on-one session that lasted just more than two hours.

Firms represented included most business segments, especially medical, information technology and construction.

"It was very cost-effective and informative," said Gary French, director of international sales for Clearwater-based Mercury Medical.

Most of the medical supply and equipment company's business is domestic, and it wants to expand its international market. French found the videoconference was a good entry to opportunities in Chile.

He estimated it would have cost him $1,500 to go to Chile and meet business specialists he communicated with during the conference.

"For 15 bucks, you can't beat it," French said. "I could see who I was dealing with and establish a contact. It was a great way to evaluate opportunities and screen perceptions using public professionals. It was clear, and it was understandable."

The videoconference highlighted information provided by officials working for the U.S. Commercial Services, a commerce department agency that has about 1,800 trade specialists in about 260 cities around the world.

Martinez selected Chile for the initial videoconference because Congress is reviewing a free trade agreement with the country, which would increase the country's market growth potential and export potential.

The agreement, similar to the free trade arrangement with Mexico, would eliminate the average 6-percent duty on U.S. products going into the country, Martinez said.

Florida companies already are doing a $1-billion-a-year export business with Chile, Martinez said. Major exports include medical devices, software, health care products and technology and industrial machinery.

Import business, especially wines and seafood, amounts to about $600 million a year, he said.

"Chile is a market that will grow more," Martinez said. "We presented Chile as a market of opportunity for the Tampa Bay area. It's already a stable, open market, and it will be even more open with the free trade agreement."

The videoconference gave area businesses an overview of the Chilean marketplace and a briefing of the country's economic conditions. Later this year, interested companies will be matched with Chilean businesses via one-on-one videoconferences.

But Nicholas Vouris, sales manager of Santech Inc. in Clearwater, is not waiting.

He attended the videoconference and already drafted a letter to a business specialist at an embassy in Chile, seeking more information and possible contacts.

"We want to develop our business," he said. "We'd like to get representation down there."

Santech employs 25 and manufactures standard and customized light-emitting diode display scoreboards and game monitoring equipment, message boards and video-projected displays.

The company's international projects include scoreboards and similar products in Venezuela, Egypt and China and at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico.

"We have sold all over the world, but 95 percent of our business is through ad agencies or on the Internet," Vouris said. "We're passive marketers and want to change that. The video conference was a good start."

Martinez plans to offer a videoconference with commercial service business specialists in China to counteract the reluctance to travel because of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

"We can help companies continue to do business in China," he said. "They can meet and conduct business virtually."

To reach Jane Meinhardt, call (813) 342-2476 or send your e-mail to jmeinhardt@bizjournals.com.

The Washington Post Outlook • Argentina, Shortchanged: Former World Bank economist Joseph Stiglitz explains why the once-prosperous country is in economic meltdown: because it followed the advice of the International Monetary Fund. News from Argentina • Argentina's President-Elect Seeks Allies (Reuters, May 15, 2003) • Argentines Doubtful About New President (Associated Press, May 15, 2003) • Argentines Have Doubts About New Leader (Associated Press, May 15, 2003) • Argentina's President-Elect Scours for Support (Reuters, May 15, 2003) • Injuries Force Russia to Pull Out of ATP Event (Reuters, May 15, 2003) • Why the Hemisphere Resists Most Latin American countries are opting out the Bush administration's war on terrorism.   

Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, May 16, 2003; Page A24

BUENOS AIRES -- Claudio Gerosa has done well for himself. His consulting business all but sprouted wings in the 1990s, growing by 500 percent as he and his partners helped foreign businessmen sell soft drinks, cars, televisions and other merchandise. Gerosa's income quadrupled. He stashed some but spent gobs more: He took the family to Disney World, went through eight cars in 10 years and bought a new home.

"I'm not the kind of guy who hides his money under his mattress," said Gerosa, a tanned and affable man. "I like to spend it."

Enrique Saavedra, 44, is a year older than Gerosa and agonizingly poorer. The past decade was not nearly as kind to him, as the deluge of better-made foreign goods into the country cost him not one factory job but two. Since 1999, he has made a living -- for lack of a better word, he says -- rummaging through garbage for cardboard, cans and other recyclables to sell for a few pennies per pound. He says he earns about $50 a month. Even with the recession, Gerosa says that he earns the equivalent of between $1,000 and $2,000 monthly, down from a peak of $5,000 in the 1990s, but still enough for a middle-class lifestyle.

"We live like animals now," said Saavedra, wiry as a bantamweight and the father of a 9-year-old boy. "What I do to survive is what a stray dog does to survive. I was much better off 10, 11 years ago than I am today. It's like I'm living my life in reverse."

The differing fortunes of the two men provide a vivid illustration of how Argentina's effort to plug into the global economy has split this comfortably middle-class country in two: one well-off and hungry for more, the other wretchedly poor and hungry.

The gap in incomes between Argentina's richest and poorest families is now more than 10 times what it was just 15 years ago. According to government statistics, the wealthiest 10 percent of Argentina's population earned nearly 178 percent more than the country's poorest 10 percent last year; in 1988, the margin was only 18 percent.

It is an epic transformation for a country that has not known pervasive poverty since the Great Depression and has largely avoided the abyss that divides rich from poor in such other Latin American countries as Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela. And it is that growing division that largely fueled the backlash against former president Carlos Menem, who abandoned his bid Wednesday to win a third presidential term. Opinion polls had showed Menem trailing Nestor Kirchner -- now the president-elect -- by margins in the double digits. Under Argentine election law, Kirchner, who qualified for a runoff election by finishing second to Menem in a field of five major candidates in the first round of balloting on April 27, won the presidency when Menem dropped out.

Just a decade ago, Argentina's middle class made up 80 percent of the population, according to government statistics. The unemployment rate had not eclipsed 5 percent since the 1940s, when Juan Peron's government expanded the rights of labor unions, extended government control over domestic industries and modernized the welfare system.

In 1993, however, Argentina's unemployment rate surpassed the 5 percent barrier for the first time in more than 60 years and has continued to climb. Economists estimate that a quarter of Argentina's workforce is jobless.

When Menem was elected in 1989, he sold virtually all of the country's state-run industries, pegged the value of the peso to that of the dollar to quell inflation and borrowed heavily from international lenders such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Those policies yielded a potent but short-lived growth spurt in the 1990s, at once raising the ceiling on possibilities for the educated and well-connected while removing the floor underneath blue collar workers.

Argentina's economy contracted by 10.9 percent last year. That, coupled with its default on nearly $141 billion in foreign debt payments and the devaluation of the peso by nearly 70 percent 16 months ago, has dried up foreign investment.

Thu May 15, 9:14 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (<a href=story.news.yahoo.com>Reuters) - Venezuela's tight foreign exchange controls have stopped the South American country's candidate from competing in the Miss Universe (news - web sites) beauty pageant, her main sponsor says.

Venezuela's private television channel Venevision said on Thursday that Miss Venezuela -- brown-haired Mariangel Ruiz -- would not attend the Miss Universe contest in Panama on June 3 because they were unable to obtain the hard currency needed to send her.

Venevision, which traditionally sponsors the country's candidates, sent a letter on Thursday to the president of the Miss Universe Organisation, Paula Shugart, advising her that Ruiz would not be going.

"We are all saddened that Mariangel Ruiz (Miss Venezuela 2003) will not be participating. Venezuela has a very strong following and the country's absence this year will be deeply felt," Shugart responded in a statement sent to Reuters by Venevision.

Venezuelan women have had a remarkable success in such contests, winning four Miss Universe crowns, five Miss World (news - web sites) crowns and three Miss International crowns.

Left-wing President Hugo Chavez introduced stringent foreign exchange controls more than three months ago to stem heavy capital flight and a slide in the bolivar currency triggered by an opposition strike in December and January.

Ruiz told Globovision television she was still hoping a last-minute arrangement could allow her to compete in Panama. "I represent a dream and a hope for Venezuela," she said.