Silicon Valley has long stood as a leader in innovation and technology. However, in a 2017 Global Startup Ecosystem Report, Buenos Aires, Shanghai and Tel Aviv were at the top of the list. Entrepreneur magazine interviewed Matías Recchia as the prime example of a successful entrepreneur of the thriving startup city of Buenos Aires. In the interview Recchia spoke about the country's top tech education and friendly environment as reasons for the city's success.
The Inter-American Dialogue will honor Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Roberto Murray Meza, President of Grupo AGRISAL and FUNDEMAS, at its Leadership for the Americas Awards Gala dinner. The Leadership for the Americas Awards honor individuals who have dedicated their life-long service to the Dialogue’s core mission – advancing democratic governance, social equity, and prosperity in our hemisphere.
Mexican dairy powerhouse Grupo Lala is investing more than $30 million in the construction of a new dairy processing plant in neighboring Guatemala. Lala chairman Eduardo Tricio Haro said the new facility will process milk, ice cream and other dairy products and create "around 3,000 jobs both direct and indirect." President Enrique Peña Nieto said Lala's investment "stood out" as an example of Mexico's plans to "promote trade and production" with Guatemala and other countries in the region.
David Martinez is presiding over a merger that will create Argentina’s biggest public company. Telecom Argentina SA’s combination with Cablevision SA will produce a telecommunications powerhouse with a market value of $11.5 billion, according to brokerage TPCG. The top shareholder of the new company will be Martinez. The combined company will be the first in Argentina to be legally permitted to offer packages of wireless, landline, fixed internet and television services to consumers.
The Inter-American Development Bank and Fundación Real Madrid presidents, Luis Alberto Moreno and Florentino Pérez, respectively, signed an agreement to create new schools in Latin America and the Caribbean. This collaboration "aims to promote initiatives in favor of youth at risk of exclusion, using sports as an instrument of development and social inclusion."
In early May, the cyber attack WannaCry left the world on high alert. How dangerous are these attacks? Tim Maurer, a cyber security expert tells Moisés Naím in this interview. Watch it here.
Efecto Naím, 5 June 2017
Leadership on the battle against climate change is shifting from the White House to Europe and China.
El País 4 June 2017
Registration for our 24th annual meeting is now open! Don't miss out on the opportunity to reconnect with your G50 community in the magnificent city of Berlin. To register please follow the link in the email (Headlines & Bylines: Registration now open) sent to you in early June.
The most popular female novelist in Turkey says the rise of populism in the west offers an opportunity for solidarity and sisterhood with the Middle East. Women across ages and nationalities are realizing that “we can’t take the rights we have for granted,” said writer Elif Shafak during the Guardian women seminar. Read more of her thoughts on feminism in the world.
Donald Trump's shoot-from-the-hip, inconsistent foreign policy threatens NATO and risks undermining efforts to curb Russian aggression and fight terrorism, argues Handelsblatt's Torsten Riecke. Read the full article here.
Acclaimed public intellectual Ivan Krastev says our reading diet these days is filled with anniversaries and scandals. This year, bookstores are being invaded by an army of new books related to the centenary of the Russian Revolution. And on the scandal front, not a day seems to pass without a new disturbing, inflammatory indignity besmirching the Trump administration. Read more as Krastev explains the Russian revolution in light of Trump's administration.
For many on the liberal left, David Goodhart is persona non grata due to an essay he wrote for Prospect magazine in 2004 entitled "Too Diverse?" and his new book "The Road to Somewhere" will surely spark controversy as well. Jonathan Freedland reviews it for The Guardian.
Universal basic income is the idea that just won’t go away. At heart, it’s a very simple concept – every individual citizen should receive a regular payment on an unconditional basis. However, the actual structure and design varies considerably. Nonetheless, what has become clear in the last year or so is that there is growing desire across the globe to explore, debate, test, design, and build support for a universal basic income. The Royal Society for the Art's (RSA) distinguished thinker Anthony Painter considers the debate in this article.
IguanaFix, the leading platform for on-demand home and auto services in Latin America, was chosen by Harvard professors as a case study for the Scaling Tech Ventures course in Harvard Business School. On April 11, Matías Recchia, CEO and co-founder of IguanaFix, talked to the students about creating and developing the company.
Louis Vuitton is now a major investor in Colombian swimwear brand Maaji. Maaji swimwear is now sold in 54 countries and has stores in various countries of Latin America, but this new partnership will globalize the brand whilst maintaining its Colombian DNA.
If all else fails, try the previously unthinkable. It is not a bad principle for economic policy in the best of times. Today, it may be just what is needed: many Western countries – certainly the United States, Japan, and Germany, probably the United Kingdom, and soon much of the rest of the eurozone – should pursue direct government intervention in wage bargaining, especially for the lowest earners. Read more of Bill Emmott's article on wages.
Fifty-six companies in the last edition of The Sustainability Yearbook 2017 produced by RobecoSAM, the main reviewer of sustainability in corporations worldwide, hail from Chile. In this year's edition, Falabella ranked as the world leader in sustainability in its industry.
The National Academy of Engineering awarded Enrique Pescarmona the "Ing. Gerardo M. Lasalle" prize for his highly important and recognized merits in industrial development.
Argentina is offering investors the best opportunity in the past 25 years as President Mauricio Macri reforms the battered Latin American economy, according to real state developer Eduardo Elsztain. “We are executing the most aggressive investment program during the last 25 years because the values are still low," said Elsztain.
When thinking about Panama's future economic challenges, Stanley Motta is certain that education will play a big role. Without education, he says, there won't be a capable work force to generate or do jobs. Therefore, he proposes to change the role of the Department of Education to an authority figure.
