IDB President Claver-Carone Unveils New Vision, Mobilizes Support for Recapitalization

Following our very successful webinar on April 27, 2021, with IDB President Mauricio Claver-Carone, moderated by international finance icon Bill Rhodes, we are pleased to provide further insight into the IDB’s dense agenda to revitalize the region:

IDB and IDB Invest Gain Board Support on Vision 2025 and Path Toward Capitalization. To read, please click on the following LINK.

VISION 2025 – REINVEST IN THE AMERICAS: A DECADE OF OPPORTUNITY. To read, please click on the following LINK.

 

LATCAM welcomes the new Ambassador of the Dominican Republic in Switzerland

Ramon Esteve, Linda Walker, Dr. Philippe G. Nell and Tatjana Gaspar spoke in a video call with H.E. Ambassador José Sánchez Fung from the Dominican Republic.

The purpose was to welcome the Ambassador in our community, establish a first personal contact, present the Chamber with its stakeholders, business-related activities and opportunities, but also to hear from the Ambassador about his views and plans in the near future.

With a population of 10.6 million, the Dominican Republic has the largest GPD in Central America and the Caribbean and has achieved robust growth over the past decade. Other than tourism, which may be the commonly best-known sector that suffered most through the pandemic, infrastructure, mining, manufacturing and real estate are other important sectors open to foreign investment. They are expected to contribute significantly to the recovery.
In 2020, the country was the third largest source of Swiss imports from Latin America with 1.14 billion, mostly gold (97%). Swiss exports amounted to CHF 34 million with mainly machines, pharmaceuticals, optical and medical instruments. Swiss investment stock amounted to CHF 265 million (2019).
Nestlé has two factories for the domestic market and exports. On November 13, 2020, in the presence of President Luis Abinader and several ministers, Nestlé broke the ground for a biomass plant at the site of San Francisco de Macoris where it produces dairy products. By 2023, Nestlé will invest an additional USD 70 million and by 2025 all packaging will be recyclable and reusable according to Nestlé’s “Zero Waste to Landfill” guidelines.
Swiss investors benefit from an Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement (2006). Trade with the Dominican Republic increased vigorously during the first quarter of this year for Swiss exports (+18%) and imports (+11%).

LATCAM wishes the Ambassador a successful tenure and looks forward to a productive cooperation.

 

 

Bundespräsident Guy Parmelin trifft Schweizer Exportwirtschaft

LATCAM was one of the 22 Chambers of Commerce and Business Associations invited by President of the Federal Council Guy Parmelin to the 4th Roundtable discussion on the current challenges of the Swiss export community.

Our Vice-President Linda Walker von Graffenried represented LATCAM at this important event.

We would also like to thank our Board members Bühler Group, Bank Julius Bär, Swiss Re and Zurich Insurance for providing us with their input prior to the Roundtable.

To read the official press release in German or French, please click on one of the following links: Deutsch Français

Revenue statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean 2021

This report compiles comparable tax revenue statistics over the period 1990-2019 for 27 Latin American and Caribbean economies.

To read the Report in pdf, click on the following LINK

Video meeting LATCAM – Swiss Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (May 5, 2021)

The road to future cooperation

 

LATCAM is very appreciative to have had the opportunity to offer its Board members once again the platform for a productive virtual discussion with their peers of one of the Swiss Chambers of Commerce in Latin America.

Our meet & exchange with the Board members of the Swiss-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (SwissCam) was introduced by welcoming remarks from H.E. Andrea Semadeni, Ambassador of Switzerland to Brazil, who stressed the need to further expand the well-functioning partnership of our two Chambers in order to increase the business volume. Philippe Praz underscored the importance of this collaboration, while announcing that he will soon leave his post and take another assignment in China. Philip Schneider mentioned the critical moment for Brazil, when a number of new laws is being passed that could potentially improve the market conditions for Swiss companies. Frederico Turolla showed a short slide presentation giving an overlook of opportunities. In particular, the sectors infrastructure (e.g. sanitation, waste and water management), agriculture, services and consumption, but also cleantech, oil and gas and financial services present major opportunities for foreign investment in Brazil. Thomas Först  emphasized the necessity to keep the network strong by showing and sharing opportunities. The formal presentations from both sides were enriched by numerous discussion points from the participants.

On the Swiss side, participants included Ramon Esteve, President of LATCAM (ECOM Agroindustrial); Linda Walker von Graffenried, Vice-President of LATCAM (Walker von Graffenried Asset Management); Gabriela Lippe-Holst, Vice-President of LATCAM (Acqupart Holding); Manfred Ebling, Treasurer of LATCAM (Zurich Insurance); Carlos E. Represas, Board Member of LATCAM (Bombardier, former Nestlé); Markus Pölzl, Board Member of LATCAM (Bühler Group); Arturo Stöcklin, Board Member of LATCAM (Bank Vontobel); Andreas Berger, Board Member of LATCAM (Swiss Re); Philippe G. Nell, Honorary Ambassador of LATCAM; Tatjana Gaspar, Managing Director of LATCAM; Thomas Först, Martina Bietenhader and Hans Aebi (Switzerland Global Enterprise).

On the Brazilian side, participants included H.E. Andrea Semadeni, Swiss Ambassador to Brazil; Philippe Praz, Head of the Business Hub Brazil; Philip Schneider, President of SwissCam (Schneider, Pugliese, Sztokfisz, Figueiredo e Carvalho Advogados); Jürg Marbach (Atlas Schindler); Frederico Turolla (Pezco Economics); Pedro Varela (Nestlé); Angelo Colombo (Swiss Re); Wilson Monteiro and Fausto Almeida (ABB); Stefania Moeri Hertach, CEO of SwissCam.

Using trade to fight COVID-19 (OECD)

 

To read the Report, please click on the following LINK

Watch the YouTube VIDEO