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MoneyShow: Why Argentina Is Latin America’s Hidden Treasure

On December 14, 2010, In a-bric, foreign investment, by InvestBA
BBVA Argentina

BBVA, one of MoneyShow's picks, understands Argentine consumers like to hide their personal treasure.

A confluence of good news yesterday on several fronts: The market price for Argentina’s three major AgExports rose, the country risk fell another 3.5%, LCD prices have fallen 30% since the World Cup and debt repayment negotiations began in earnest with the Paris Club.

Despite the onda positiva, it’s important to remember that each of these indicators is highly volatile and subject to external variables like extreme weather, unforeseen risk, punitive tariffs and French egos. So what about something more tangible, more long-term, more big picture to hang our collective hopes on?

MoneyShow and Carla Pasternak’s Global Perspectives to the rescue. Pasternak, director of income research for High-Yield International, scours the globe looking for income plays in developing countries, and she certainly seems fond of Argentina. “A Hidden Treasure,” “the fastest-growing country in the region,” and “the booming country” are just three of the cumplidos macroeconomicos she sends Argentina’s way.

True, inflation is above normal and investor confidence was crippled a decade ago with the $95 billion default but, writes Pasternak, “The good news is all that is in the past. Argentina is in the midst of an economic revival.” One of the keys to success is the shifting nature of Argentina’s external dependence away from the Untied States and rapidly towards BRIC nations like Brazil which imports the majority of Argentine auto production, China which has joint ventures stretching from Tucuman to Tierra del Fuego and India which continues to broaden bilateral relations with Argentina. (Full Story)

For more information about Argentina investment opportunities, download the new issue of InvestBA Privada.

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Stampede: The New Digital Middle Class in Argentina, Brazil & Mexico

On October 26, 2010, In a-bric, creative class, entrepreneurs, foreign investment, technology, by InvestBA
The New Digital Middle Class in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico

Stampede: Razorfish and Terra chart the rise of the New Digital Middle Class in Argentina, Brazil & Mexico.

An excellent report from Razorfish and Terra is out this week with some eye-opening statistics and observations about the rise of the New Digital Middle Class (NDMC) in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

“Never have we seen such a rapid change in the digital evolution of a region like we’re seeing unfold in Latin America now,” begins the report titled A Debandada (The Stampede). While the Portuguese title is an unmistakable nod to Brazil (BTW, on pace to become the world’s fourth largest economy by 2020), the purchasing power and preferences of C-class consumers earning between $700 and $2,000 per month are examined in all three countries.

So what do they want? Smartphones, but not “smart” in the sense of expensive iPhones and Blackberries with tons of features they don’t need. C-class smart means an affordable Internet-enabled device with a camera, radio, mp3 and, increasingly, TV.

But what about the expensive carrier charges? Fear not, the NDMC are as street-savvy as they are status-conscious, so they often piggyback free Bluetooth connections to share content like new movies and video games, often purchased on the street for a few pesos.

Obviously social media is a major draw for the NDMC, and it plays a pivotal role during the Discovery phase when they first realize “the entire world is at their fingertips.” According to Stampede, 71% of Argentines use IM, 8.1 million are on Facebook and Twitter is gaining momentum, although the rise in Brazilian tweets is something of a regional phenomenon, as recently explained in Time. The full Stampede report is available now on SlideShare.

For more news on the Argentina tech sector, visit our archives and download the new issue of InvestBA Privada.

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O Destino: The Battle for Cono Sur Dominance

On October 8, 2010, In a-bric, competitiveness, by InvestBA
Lula Petrobras platform

The more distracted Argentina becomes, the more likely Brazil will dominate the Southern Cone.

As he held up crude-covered hands to the throng of photographers gathered on the gleaming, state-of-the-art Petrobras platform, Brazil’s outgoing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva smiled. He had good news to share sprinkled with superlatives, like most of the headlines coming out of Brazil these days. Not only would the new oil and gas platform soon be producing 180,000 barrels a day but, fresh off its largest global offering ever, Petrobras also has a cool US$132 billion in the bank for future acquisitions. Another day, another real, another triumph and one step closer to Southern Cone dominance. If you’re trying to make sense of the regional power play, Stratfor Global Intelligence has a must-read analysis of Brazil’s hard-fought path to prosperity; recent efforts to seduce buffer states Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay; and the unfortunate key ingredient to ultimate Brazilian dominance of the Southern Cone: Argentina’s distraction. The more Argentina gets pulled down by populist-driven policies, macro instability and political uncertainty, Stratfor argues, the more likely Brazil will continue to shore up dominance and influence over the border states and eventually the region as a whole. Growing currency instability and socioeconomic disparity in Brazil are also cited as potential obstacles, but it’s the cross-border opportunism (“Brazil’s ability to capitalise on Argentina’s decline”) that, not unlike the truth, stings the most. With presidential elections still a year away, Argentina will have plenty of time for distractions and Brazil plenty of room for continental influence-wielding in the months ahead.  (Full Story)

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Tourism A Priority…Websites Apparently Not

On October 4, 2010, In competitiveness, tourism, by InvestBA
Argentina's Tourism Website

Seriously? Argentina's tourism website looks like it was an ambitious sixth-grade class project...in 1998.

An article appears on today’s Middle East Travel & Tourism website lauding the giant strides Argentina has made in promoting tourism in recent years. The article is full of self-congratulatory statements by officials saying how tourism is such a high priority, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at the Ministry’s website.

If online first impressions are lasting, then Argentina is the last country you would want to visit: Flash-heavy, thumbnails, low resolution photographs blown out of proportion, horrible navigation, poor translations (What exactly are “Tourist Products”?), dead links and—yes—even an animated GIF airplane (pictured) that flies across the screen repeatedly with simulated engine noise.

Three minutes on turismo.gov.ar will leave you dazed, confused, grossly uninformed and, quite frankly, pretty amazed that anyone outside of Argentina learns anything about this beautiful country and decides to travel here.

So what’s a foreign traveler searching for information on South America to do? Go directly to the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism site for starters. Behold, substance-over-style (i.e., no Flash), HTML, a blog format, RSS, microsites for Destinations and the 2014 World Cup, current tourism data in bar graph format, an event calendar, the list goes on.

Even tiny Uruguay has a better site than Argentina with social networking links (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube), a Google Translate dropdown and tourism circuit recommendations presented as Google Maps.

Bottom line: The international tourism space is far too competitive and foreign travelers have far too many destination options for Argentina to let this website be an outsider’s first impression. If tourism is truly going to be an engine for growth in the 21st century, you can’t have a website that was relevant in the 20th.

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VanityBA: The Bienal de Sao Paulo

On September 29, 2010, In arts & entertainment, creative class, culture, vanityba, by laura

Gil Vicente in front of his series "Inimigos"

From September 25 through December 12, the 29th Bienal de Sao Paulo will take place in the Brazilian capital, calling the art world’s attention to the Southern Hemisphere.

The fair is organized by the Fundacao Bienal de Sao Paulo, an institution that fosters contemporary Brazilian art. The Bienal, first held in 1951, presents this art to a large and diverse audience and gives both Brazilian and foreign artists a fantastic stage from which to present their work.

The theme of this year’s edition of the Bienal is the idea that art and politics are inseparable. The title of the fair is a quote borrowed from Brazilian poet Jorge de Lima’s Invencao de Orfeu: There is always a cup of sea to sail in. The title of the fair embodies the idea that the Bienal de Sao Paulo hopes to achieve: “to assert that the utopian dimension of art is contained within itself, not without it or beyond it.”

It is in this “cup of sea” where artists produce their works and move forward, despite everything else. The works of 160 artists will be on display that the Bienial. With free admission, it is expected that over one million people (300,000 of them tourists) will attend the fair over its two and a half month run.

For more event information, visit the official website and download the new issue of InvestBA Privada.

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