Business meeting hub for Central America?

You don't often see stories about El Salvador in the Business section of the New York Times. So this little article in the Times caught my eye:
The idea is too new for an ad campaign, but tiny El Salvador is pulling out all the stops to sell itself as the business-meeting hub for Central America. It is pitching itself as an alternative to popular meeting spots like Cancun, Mexico, and reaching out to foreign investors who are building everything from auto-parts plants to call centers to new hotels. (more)

Comments

Tambopaxi said…
The thing is, El Sal will get tough competition from Guatemala, which has the airport right (dangerously) in town, a nicer Zona Rosa with hotels, and attractions like Antigua 45-60 mins away. I like El Sal a lot, and wish them luck but they're choosing a tough row to hoe here...
Anonymous said…
Another problem with El Salvador is bunch of poverty, bunch of social injustice, crime rates of 12 murders a day, hacienda style government with thousands of burocracies to protect their monopolies... Yep, yep. Business hub for Central America should be either Costa Rica, that has the best educated people of the region, or Guatemala.

El Salvador... hahhahahaa, Crime Capital of Central America, Crib of Corruption.

It would be bad business coming here, because all the money goes to roads and money laundering. So business folks, stay clear of El Salvador unless you have absolute control of how your cash will be invested and regular reports of your project's status.

And if people tell you "road building", better plan it yourself, cause in here they'd start building in the rainy seasons so they can get more money for "loses", or tell them I preffer investing in a railway-type thing. Or updating the public transportation system.
El-Visitador said…
When one is a marketer, it is crucial to make sure the message is coherent with the product's attributes.

When one is a misguided Ministry of Tourism, one wastes taxpayer money on promoting a product that the customer is simply not going to purchase.

Highest-murder-rate-in-world and business conferences ... oh my.

The very definition of "non-starter."
Anonymous said…
"Highest-murder-rate-in-world"

WHY DON'T YOU EVER STATE SOMETHING LIKE THAT IN YOUR BLOG?

QUE CHISTOSO! YOUR'RE FUNNY!! "Pais Seguro" right? right? Thanks for admitting the failure of ARENA!

It's "interesting" how you keep promoting ARENA's lies in your blog EV, maybe you are one of them or get paid to write bull shit.

You should write a BIG POST about the "pais seguro" with Highest-murder-rate-in-world and tell the truth.
Jill said…
Hello from Honduras! Nice blog.
Tim said…
Not sure who was more clueless -- the Salvadoran officials who think this could succeed, or the New York Times writer who reported it.
MB said…
Tried to read the whole article (you know to have a picture of the whole: context, main idea, pros and cons)but was asked to go thru the hassle of registering.

So I venture a comment on your short post: seems to me there are quite a few people in governmental offices trying to run this country like they would their own private businesses. The idea is not bad per se, but is farfetched considering some of the countries problems. To name just a few: violence, insecurity and injustice.

It seems they would have to create some kind of "happy business bubble hub", a sort of Salvadoran disney version in order for that to work. Unless of course they're aiming at adventurous business men with a taste for risky, life taking experiences.

oh well, another shot in the air.
Tim said…
To anonymous:

Your attack on El Visitador is not well-placed. While I disagree with E-V on many issues on the balance of property rights vs. human rights and social development, if you read his blog you will see that he has never been an apologist for ARENA. Debate his ideas -- the personal attacks just make it look you do not have any ideas of your own.
El-Visitador said…
Tim, you are too kind. Thanks.
Tambopaxi said…
Tim, I agree with your gentlemanly reclama regarding conduct on your blog; it's important to keep dialogue civil, I think.

You probably missed my comment to your posting of September 4 regarding violence levels in El Sal; have you seen any figures regarding trends from month to month or year to year regarding homicides in ES? Reading comments in your blog, it looks like they're going back to levels of the war days in the early 80's... T
Tim said…
Tambopaxi,

This article from La Prensa has some of the information you are looking for. According to LPG, between 1999 and 2005 there were 29% as many deaths as during the 12 war years 1981-1992.

For month-to-month numbers in 2006, look at this chart.

I suppose if you took the 75,000 civilian deaths in the war and divided by 12 years you would come up with about 6000 per year. The current murder rate will produce around 4000 deaths.
Tambopaxi said…
OK, thanks much, Tim. saludos, T
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