Stories for November 2004
China leads regional trade giant.
South East Asian countries and China signed this Monday in Laos a landmark trade agreement that could eventually become the greatest free trade area involving a quarter of the world's population.
Kirchner to visit Chile in “coming days”.
Argentine Foreign Affairs Minister Rafael Bielsa said this Monday in Santiago that President Nestor Kirchner will not be visiting Chile in the “coming days” as was earlier anticipated.
Country image and brand for Chile.
Interbrand Chile won the 150,000 US dollars contract for designing a Country Image Strategy for Chile financed by the government and private companies.
Brazil will not intervene to bolster the US dollar.
Brazil will not intervene in the domestic money exchange market to prevent a further depreciation of the US dollar against the Real, said this Monday Henrique Meirelles, president of the Central Bank.
Intense cruise activity in Montevideo.
Three cruise vessels called in Montevideo on Monday. They are: “Crystal Symphony” with 900 passengers on her way to Antarctica; “Saga Pearl” on her return trip from the Southern seas and the more modest “Andrea” which will be involved in brief Antarctic incursions.
A very British invasion of the Falkland Islands.
According to the most recent census, in 2001, there were 1,989 persons, living in Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands. As this number includes everyone from babies to the old and infirm, it doesn't take much mental effort to compute that the arrival, all at once, of a further 1,600 people on board the Cunard liner, QE2, constitutes an invasion of significant proportions.
Mercosur/India sign tariff reductions.
Next December Mercosur and India will be signing a first tariff reduction agreement extensive to 900 products which will open the way to further advance in expanding bilateral trade.
Argentine economy forecasted to keep expanding.
The Argentine economy is forecasted to expand 5% in 2005 in a favourable international context, which could be even stronger if the pending defaulted debt negotiations with private creditors prove “successful”.
Preparing for the Kirchner-Lagos summit in Santiago.
In coincidence with the twentieth anniversary of the Argentina-Chile Peace Treaty signing, Foreign Affairs ministers from the two countries, Rafael Bielsa and Ignacio Walker will be meeting this Monday to review some pending details of Argentine president Nestor Kirchner's firs official visit to neighbouring Chile.
Torture victims to be compensated.
Chilean President Ricardo Lagos has announced compensation payments to thousands of victims, saying illegal imprisonment and torture were a state policy during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
