MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Thank the UK fire-fighters

Kate Macdonald (26) and Rachel Cunningham (22) are the two Royal Navy female officers who this Monday will be sailing aboard the Chilean Navy icebreaker “Oscar Viel” at the start of the Chilean Antarctic 2002/2003 campaign.
Other's headlines:Fresh products shortage in Punta Arenas; A thousand jobs; Employment promotion controversy

The first stop is scheduled in King George Island where the Chileans have one of their several Antarctic stations. Captain Christian Millard said everything was ready for the commencement of the campaign adding that it was a privilege for the Chilean Navy to have two RN officers on board. When asked about a female presence in the icebreaker Captain Millard said: "This is not new, we have ample accommodations with the necessary privacy, since we regularly transport female academics and scientists". . Chile and the United Kingdom have an ongoing naval exchange program of personnel and experience. Kate is preparing to become a navigation officer and Rachel a weapons system expert. . Kate and Rachel said they were looking forward to the Antarctic experience since this was the first time they had travelled so far south. However extraordinary circumstances have made the trip possible: the threat of a firemen's national strike in the United Kingdom has forced the three services to have staff ready for a back up emergency situation.

Fresh products shortage in Punta Arenas

Punta Arenas is suffering a shortage, -(and scarcity prices)- of fresh eggs, vegetables and fruit following the breakdown in early October of the "Magallanes" ferry that supplies the extreme south of Chile from Puerto Montt. However Magallanes Region officials have indicated that the situation will return to normal beginning next Monday October 28th since the ferry is being repaired by a team of Dutch experts specially contracted for the work. Magallanes and Puerto Natales are normally supplied by two ferries, "Magallanes" and "Puerto Edén", but they both had mechanical problems in July and October. "Puerto Edén" returned to operations in early August but with an only engine, and "Magallanes" suffered a breakdown described "far more serious than originally estimated". The lack of a normal ferry service is also affecting the tourist industry since visitors to national parks such as Torres del Paine are unable to travel, and furious Puerto Natales officials have pointed out "they will probably end up in Argentine Patagonia where they don't have theses XIX century inconveniences". The importance of the sea link for the isolated areas of extreme south Chile is given by the description of the "Magallanes" ferry which has a crew of forty can carry 333 passengers and 1,100 lineal meters of cargo plus some vehicles. It normally sails at ten knots on one engine and 17 knots on her two engines. The "Puerto Edén" is smaller but anyhow each trip any of the ferries will for example supply Punta Arenas with 2,800 thirty dozen boxes of eggs. The mechanical problems with the ferries are not uncommon but this time apparently the "situation has gone too far" according to Commerce and Tourism Chambers of Magallanes and Ultima Esperanza Regions. "We're loosing two trips per week of tourists that for a depressed area as Puerto Natales and at the beginning of the season is most negative", said Ahmed Zalej, president of the Ultima Esperanza Tourist Chamber. "There' no justification for what has happened; the ferry company receives an annual government subsidy equivalent to 200,000 US dollars plus other benefits under the Austral promotion legislation. When the next bid for the sea link comes up we're going to demand that conditions be re drafted and vessels have only a few years service", warned Mr. Ramón Arriagada from the Chamber of Commerce.

A thousand jobs

The building of the fourth methanol production plant in Cabo Negro, close to Punta Arenas will generate an average thousand jobs during two and a half years according to Rodolfo Krause, Methanex Chile CEO. The new plant will demand an investment of 265 million US dollars and the decision to undertake the project has been taken, "however there are some last moment details pending", admitted Mr. Krause adding that when the consortium's global CEO Mr. Pierre Choquette visits Punta Arenas in mid November, "the whole issue will be clarified". Mr. Krause recalled that the third plant actually began rather slowly with just 600 people the first months but then "rapidly took up peaking with 1,500 jobs". Regarding the second jetty in Cabo Negro, work undertaken by Chile's oil company ENAP, Mr. Krause said that the first 30 of 400 metres to build have been finished. "The jetty is essential not only for our current expansion but for any other future projects", stressed Mr. Krause. The jetty will demand a 12 million US dollars investment.

Employment promotion controversy

The consideration by Chilean Congress in Santiago of a re-drafted bill that redistributes employment promotion funds for Chile's extreme Regions such as Magallanes has caused a rift between the private and public sector in Punta Arenas. The now redrafted controversial bill, Decree 889, does not eliminate the overall appropriation but gradually eliminates direct employment subsidies and creates a special development fund to be managed by a technical forum integrated with a group of different private sector representatives. However the powerful Production and Commerce Confederation of Magallanes, CPC, rejected the initiative arguing that the new draft "definitively kills the region's company's competitiveness" and creates "more bureaucracy and inefficiency". "It's a shameful, stupid project that ignores Magallanes reality, and we will not be part of it or support it by being members of an inefficient instrument", said Arturo Lillo CPC manager. Mr. Lillo also criticized what he described as the "complaint silence" of Magallanes officials adding that the project is a "unilateral, capricious" initiative of the Santiago government that repeatedly ignored regional suggestions and advise. "They should know better since even staff of the Municipal Corporation is currently covered by the Decree 889 and will be affected with the new bill". However the representative in Magallanes of the Chilean Economy Ministry Bernardo Troncoso pointed out that the new bill ensures an eleven years horizon, non existent at the moment, "besides the fact that the equivalent of 10 million US dollars annually granted to the region by the central government will continue, and it will be the first de centralized subsidy to be directly managed regionally". Regarding CPC's decision not to participate in the management of the funds, Mr. Troncoso said "some other representative from the private sector will be sitting at the technical table".