News!

Once again i have reached the end of my holiday. Its been good and i think that when i get back to Punta Arenas there will be a lot of work to do. While i was away i was offered participation in two separate licitations. I sent my cv, but have not heard anything since....ill see soon enough. I still have loads of other things to do anyway.

So what did i do on holiday, well, i was in Buenos Aires and i went to salta. Both where really great. I'm on my way back down south now. Visiting argentina is always great. I love it to bits, but you do have to be prepared to confront strange situations. Buenos Aires is changing. Although i didn't feel the insecurity personally, on the news you hear about all sorts of crimes that are going on, and not even so far from you.

Inflation is up. Prices of products rise on an almost daily basis. Some more than others. If you have foreign currency obviously your safe, but remember the dollar is also devaluating! Besides this the supermarkets have less products on their shelves as producing companies start speculating about the price rises. This really sucks, as it puts even more pressure on prices. I just hope things will be sorted out......

Salta was relaxing as usual. It rained quite a lot. Well, actually i have to say it has rained loads this summer. Apparently more than other years. I feel sorry for my sister that came for only 2 weeks to argentina, and in salta it rained for about 3, out of the 4, days she stayed. Then when she got to Bs As, there was a huge storm and the city flooded!

Well, i still got in the pool, and still loved it! When i was in salta i visited Fundacion Impulsar. I have visited them before but in Bs As. I wanted to see what there projects where like, so one day i went with the director of the salta office to a presentation she was doing to invite entrepreneurs to participate in their program.

The meeting was attended by about 35 people, and was pretty successful. Comparing their system, to the system used by SERCOTEC, it is much more relaxed. Its different though, Although there is an evaluation process of the presented business ideas, the main indicator they use to allocate funds is whether the entrepreneur has experience in what he, or she, is proposing. The chosen entrepreneur has to attend a course to develop the business plan. The most motivated entrepreneurs finish the process and start their project. those who don't, don't get funding......After that they get a monthly guidance for 3 years.

Similar to SERCOTEC, but sometimes no the best projects get funding, because in the end, it is a government tool, and must reflect government policy in certain areas such as gender issues, and age.

Very good!

In Bs As i met up with three very interesting people. One has made a very popular CSR Blog in Argentina and has found the way to make it economically sustainable through doing training courses. I also visited Siemens, (the company), to see what kind of CSR they were doing, and why. I also met up with Matias Rosenberg. I suppose you could call him a Social entrepreneur whom has a great idea and wanted to meet up and talk about it.

Well, very interesting all of it. Now back to Punta Arenas, and see whether things can get started again. Sharon is already there!