Portugal–US Economic Development ·
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Friday, 27 January

Expresso

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Jornal de Negocios

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The Economist

  • Grameen’s business empire: Grabbing Grameen

    p div class=content-image-float clearfix img src=http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/290-width/images/print-edition/20120128_WBP002_0.jpg alt= title= class=imagecache imagecache-290-width width=290 height=431 / span class='caption'Some day, all this will belong to the state/span /divHE IS probably Bangladesh’s most celebrated citizen. Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel peace prize, founded Grameen Bank in 1983 to provide tiny loans to poor rural women. Grameen became a global model for microfinance. It also spawned 48 other firms in sectors that stretch from textiles to mobile phones. Yet the Bangladeshi government seems determined to take Mr Yunus down a peg.In May 2011 the government pushed him out of his job as boss of Grameen Bank, saying that he was past the retirement age for someone running a government bank. (Grameen Bank mostly belongs to its borrowers but the state owns a slice.) Mr Yunus says this is just a pretext for a power grab. The government now wants to assert more control over other firms in the Grameen network, which includes assets worth an estimated $1.6 billion.This is controversial, to put it mildly, not least because some Grameen firms have big foreign partners. Grameenphone, Bangladesh’s largest telecoms provider, was created with Norway’s Telenor and generates sales of nearly $1.../p

  • The internet and file-sharing: Dotcom bust

    p div class=content-image-full img src=http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-width/images/print-edition/20120128_WBP001_0.jpg alt= title= class=imagecache imagecache-full-width width=595 height=335 / span class='caption'This year’s beach sumo contest was surprisingly one-sided/span /divMOST people running a business that could end up on the wrong end of a lawsuit would keep a low profile. Not Kim Dotcom (pictured). The boss of Megaupload, a popular website that let users store and share music, films and other content, Mr Dotcom went out of his way to attract attention—and not just by changing his surname from Schmitz. He surrounded himself with glamorous women and fast cars bearing number plates such as “GUILTY”. He likened himself to Dr Evil, a movie villain, though he looks more like Dr Evil’s henchman, Fat Bastard.American investigators examining Megaupload’s business concluded that it was encouraging its users to share pirated content. They persuaded authorities in Britain, Hong Kong and other countries to seize the firm’s assets and to arrest its owners, including Mr Dotcom, who was nabbed by police in New Zealand on January 20th after being found with a shotgun in a “safe room” at his mega-mansion. The raid occurred just as Hollywood was howling after Congress gave up on a bill to crack down on piracy..../p

  • Canada’s high-tech woes: Research in commotion

    pFOR months Research In Motion (RIM), the Canadian maker of BlackBerry smartphones, has seemed incapable of getting anything right. Its PlayBook tablet went on sale without e-mail (unless attached to a BlackBerry). Its network was blacked out for days with scarcely a word from the company. It has been slow to upgrade BlackBerry’s operating system. Investors squealed as the share price fell by 70% in ten months. Canadians are now worried they might lose a second technology champion within a few years.Ever louder calls for a change in leadership were answered on January 22nd, when RIM’s joint chief executives and chairmen, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, stepped down. Investors doubt the new chief executive, Thorsten Heins, a former chief operating officer, will stop the rot. On January 23rd the share price fell by 9%.Perhaps that is because RIM sees little rot to stop. Mr Heins was anointed by Messrs Balsillie and Laziridis, who are still on the board. “I don’t think there is some drastic change needed,” he told analysts this week—certainly not a break-up of RIM, an idea some disgruntled shareholders want to consider. His boldest step will be to find a new chief marketing officer.But rot there is. Fewer and fewer companies insist that their staff use BlackBerrys. ComScore, a research firm, says that last autumn only a sixth of American smartphone-users brandished RIM’s.../p

  • Legal services: Psst, wanna buy a law firm?

    pLAWYERS have long considered themselves a breed apart: highly educated professionals, not dim-witted businessmen who think a “whereas” is a man who turns into a small member of the horse family when the moon is full. Many countries bar business types from owning even a bit (much less all) of a law firm. But in Britain, that law changed in October.Companies are queuing up to form new “alternative business structures” (ABS). The Solicitors Regulation Authority, the biggest legal regulator, has received at least 65 applications. The first ABSs should be approved in February.The “alternative” possibilities are many. Irwin Mitchell, a big personal-injury firm, may float its shares. Slater Gordon, which in 2007 became the first Australian firm to go public, has since bought some smaller firms and nearly tripled its revenues, to A$182m ($194m).Another new structure will be that of the Co-operative, a membership organisation best known for its supermarkets, but which also runs a bank and buries and cremates more people than any other entity in Britain. The Co-op already has a legal arm for its members. Approval as an ABS will let it sell the same services to the general public. In anticipation, it plans to add 150 people to its current legal staff of 400.Liberalisation will make lawyering cheaper, say its boosters. Tech-savvy entrepreneurs may buy or start law firms and offer.../p

  • Boeing: Faster, faster, faster

    p div class=content-image-full img src=http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-width/images/print-edition/20120128_WBP003_0.jpg alt= title= class=imagecache imagecache-full-width width=595 height=335 / /divTHERE are not many businesses in which the next six years’ worth of customers form an orderly queue, putting down fat deposits and topping them up with further instalments as they wait in line. But that is Boeing’s fortunate position. On January 25th it announced a 21% rise in annual net profits, to $4 billion.Last September, after three years of delay, Boeing made the first deliveries of its newest model, the 787 Dreamliner. A revamped version of the trusty but ageing 747 jumbo has also arrived, two years late. A few airlines got fed up and cancelled, but most had little choice but to keep waiting. Boeing’s main rival, Airbus, has an even longer backlog—up to eight years at current production rates. And the delivery schedule for Airbus’s answer to the Dreamliner, the A350, has been slipping.Last year, straining to ramp up production to meet soaring demand, the two big planemakers turned out a record 1,011 airliners between them. But for every plane they delivered, they won more than two fresh orders (net of cancellations), so the queue got longer. On January 25th Boeing won its largest-ever order from Europe:.../p

  • Schumpeter: The power of tribes

    p div class=content-image-full img src=http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-width/images/print-edition/20120128_WBD000_0.jpg alt= title= class=imagecache imagecache-full-width width=595 height=335 / /divEVER since the collapse of the Soviet Union ended the old, neat division between East and West, people have been inventing new ways of dividing up the world. In the 1990s it was fashionable to talk about America, Europe and Japan. Today pundits draw the line between emerged and the emerging markets.Joel Kotkin, a geographer, suggests another frame of reference. In “The New World Order”, a paper for the Legatum Institute, a think-tank in London, he looks at the world through the prism of culture. The ties of history and habit—of shared experiences and common customs—can explain a lot about who does business with whom. Mr Kotkin quotes Ibn Khaldun, a 14th-century Arab historian: “Only tribes held together by a group feeling can survive in a desert.” Substitute “globalised economy” for “desert” and this describes the modern world quite well.Mr Kotkin’s argument chimes with recent research. The em class=ItalicWorld Values Survey/em divides the world into big cultural zones (the Confucian zone, the English-speaking zone, etc) on the basis of common values. These common values cannot be explained simply by income.../p

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Financial Times — Europe

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Portugal-US Chamber of Commerce - slideshow image

New 16 November 2011 Statement by the EC, ECB and IMF on the second review mission to Portugal

The European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund released a statement based on their second review mission to Portugal. The review indicates that growth in 2011 is better than projected, but that the recession in 2012 will be more pronounced than anticipated.

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Posted on 17 Nov 2011
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Donzelina Barroso attends the Second Meeting of Members of City Councils of Portuguese Descent

This meeting, organized by the Embassy of Portugal and sponsored by Grupo Banco Espirito Santo, included a number of participants, including the Chamber’s colleagues from the American Chamber in Lisbon. Nuno Cardoso of the Espirito Santo Investments moderated a panel on the Portuguese Economy, on the significance of the Portuguese communities globally, and on Espirito Santo’s presence in the United States. The full presentation will be available soon. This meeting coincided with the President’s visit to Washington, DC for meetings and also with the PALCUS annual gala.

Posted on 17 Nov 2011
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His Excellency Professor Anibal Cavaco Silva received at the Chamber on November 10, 2011

The Portugal-US Chamber of Commerce and the Portuguese American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey were honored to host the President of the Portuguese Republic at a private reception on Thursday, November 10th, in New York City. The President, who was accompanied by Minister of State and of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Paulo Portas, addressed an audience of 70 people, focusing on the need for improved collaboration and promotion of Portugal during this difficult time. The President was confident in Portugal’s ability to weather this economic storm. Donzelina Barroso, president of the Portugal-US Chamber of Commerce, and Carlos Couto, Vice President of the Portuguese American Chamber of Commerce in New Jersey affirmed both Chambers’ commitment to collaborate and support the effort to help promote Portugal. The President’s remarks can be read here. Photographs of the reception will be posted in the coming days.

Posted on 15 Nov 2011
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Carlucci Versus Kissinger Book Launch at Georgetown University

Longtime Chamber friend, Dr. Bernardino Gomes, will be at Georgetown for the U.S. launch of his new book, Carlucci Versus Kissinger: The US and the Portuguese Revolution. Dr. Gomes is a former member of the board of the Luso-American Foundation and is currently a researcher at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations, among other activities. The book, co-authored by Tiago Moreira de Sá, a guest associate professor at the New University of Lisbon and also a researcher at Portuguese Institute of International Relations, has been very well received and helps to fill a gap in the scholarship of contemporary Portuguese History. The event will be held at 6 pm on Friday, September 16 at Georgetown’s Mortara Center. See here for details and RSVP information. The book may also be purchased through Amazon.com.

Posted on 13 Sep 2011
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Chamber and Portuguese Business and Industrial Associations to Collaborate

Donzelina Barroso, president of the Chamber, met in NY on September 12, 2011 with Pedro Madeira Rodrigues, secretary-general of both the Associação Comercial de Lisboa (http://www.acl.org.pt) and of the Confederação Internacional dos Empresários Portugueses (http://www.ciep.pt) to discuss possible areas of collaboration and cooperation among the three institutions. Aside from sharing information, the Chamber will plan to work with CIEP to share information about the needs of Chamber members and to jointly organize trade missions and other events.

Posted on 13 Sep 2011
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Our Organization

The Portugal–US Chamber of Commerce in New York was founded in 1979 to stimulate economic development, trade and investment, and cultural exchange between the United States and Portugal. As a member of the Association of Portuguese-American Chambers of Commerce (APACC), it works closely with its counterparts in Portugal, Canada, and across the United States to promote shared interests in Portugal and expose the vast economic opportunities of the country. The Chamber provides its members ongoing opportunities to network with individuals also engaged in Portugal-US affairs as well as numerous channels by which they can obtain essential bilateral support and information.

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Membership Benefits

Membership in the Chamber is open to all individuals who are interested in building a strong economic partnership between Portugal and the United States. Current members range from small businesses to large corporations in the fields of banking and finance, construction, communications, education, import/export, law, and transportation, to name a few.

Membership benefits include:

  • Frequent Chamber events that promote networking and foster strong community ties
  • Access to prominent business and government leaders
  • Alerts of noteworthy cultural and social events in New York City
  • Business luncheons and seminars to expose members to exciting new economic opportunities
  • Access to online resources and members-only directory
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