Learn what you need to know to conduct successful business in Mexico!This book is a primer on all aspects of doing business in Mexico, with practical examples that illustrate the risks and benefits of Mexican business operations. It provides the basic knowledge that all prospective investors and entrepreneurs in Mexico need, especially in the light of NAFTA. One of the authors is the former CEO and chairman of a multinational, multi-billion dollar company headquartered in Mexico City; the ...

After nearly a decade of work in Mexico insuring real estate properties to foreign purchasers, the same issues always seem to surface regarding second home acquisitions:"If I buy a house in Mexico, don't I get a 99-year lease from the government?""I understand that I can buy a residence in Mexico only if the title is vested in a Mexican corporation.""I didn't think Americans could own Mexican beachfront properties."All of these suppositions are incorrect. This...

In the 1990s, few countries were more lionized than Argentina for its efforts to join the club of wealthy nations. Argentina's policies drew enthusiastic applause from the IMF, the World Bank and Wall Street. But the club has a disturbing propensity to turn its back on arrivistes and cast them out. That was what happened in 2001, when Argentina suffered one of the most spectacular crashes in modern history. With it came appalling social and political chaos, a collapse of the peso, and a wr...

Small and medium enterprise (SME) support programs are a common feature of industrial policy in developing countries but one whose effectiveness is not well known. Governments are motivated to support SMEs both because they make up the majority of industrial enterprises and contribute substantially to GDP employment and earnings and because SMEs are thought to be weaker than their larger counterparts. Few governments however have evaluated their SME programs rigorously so there is little empi...

Comprehensively updated second edition of the bestselling book on Portuguese Property. A detailed and easy to follow guide to buying property and living in Portugal. Part one of the book deals with working and living in Portugal. It explains all the bureaucratic procedures newcomers are likely to face. In part two on buying real estate the book sets out all the legal formalities for purchase and sale in a straightforward and easy to follow manner.

“My friend – and now partner – Jorge Paulo and his team are among the best businessmen in the world. He is a fantastic person and his story should be an inspiration to everybody, as it is for me.” – Warren BuffettIn just over forty years, Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Beto Sicupira built the biggest empire in the history of Brazilian capitalism and launched themselves onto the world stage in an unprecedented way.Over the past five years, they have a...

This book will be part of a series which will provide information on all aspects of retiring in particular countries. The monographs are a companion series to a web site which is a developing site and which is mentioned within the book. The details covered include choosing a country, getting a visa, police clearance, income, driving conditions, climate, time differences and many other aspects vital to settling in a new place. Included also is a resource chapter which provides links to many...

An essential guide to doing business in Central and South America, complete with communication and etiquette tips.This is the essential guide to business etiquette and customs for anyone doing business in Latin America. It features everything the reader needs to know?from getting an appointment to securing a contract. Doing business in Latin America can pose unique, substantial challenges to a non-native, and this book demystifies the entire process. From the two-h...

In its new and developing role as a "knowledge bank," the World Bank can offer its clients much more than new financing (loans, guarantees or grants). It can also offer access to recent developments in international best practices, provide new knowledge sharing opportunities and facilitate the exchange of new ideas in a variety of fields. It can also use this new capacity to help local institutions address strategic and operational challenges. To that end, this book brings together the result...

What promise did Sequoia Capital recognize in SKS microfinance (India) that it had also seen in Apple, Oracle, and Google?Why would Vodafone help distribute money via cell phones for millions of Kenyans?How did a Mexican retailer create a financial-services empire, Banco Azteca, that would serve eight million borrowers in five years?From its origins as a nonprofit poverty alleviation strategy, microfinance has become a viable business model for providing financial s...

Following some historical background, this paper describes how corruption is manifested in Paraguay. The paper distinguishes between factors that explain the growth performance of Paraguay since 1960 (where corruption does not directly enter as a significant factor) and factors that explain the relative level of income of Paraguay in the past 40 or 50 years compared with other countries. It then illustrates how Paraguay's weak institutions may have led to long-term growth below its potential....

This book analyzes recent labor market trends in Latin American countries and the factors that underlie the failure to create more and more productive and rewarding jobs, a failure with substantial political and social costs. The authors analyze how growth and job creation in the region's economies compare with other emerging countries, the impact of job creation and destruction on productivity growth and the creation of "good" jobs, and the relative importance and role of labor market p...