A recent study by the firm Estudios Técnicos, paid by Jones Act shippers, purports to show the benefits for Puerto Rico of the Jones Act. The federal law requires all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried in U.S.-flag ships, built in the U.S. and crewed by U.S. citizens and permanent residents. The analysis, as described by a local business publication, makes for sad reading.
Puerto Rico’s current economic situation is deep-rooted in the government’s inability to understand the gravity of the problem and the outcome of doing the same things over and over again, while expecting different results.
In its quest for freshness and to uphold high quality standards, Puerto Rico’s Wendy’s franchisee invests about $12 million a year in goods from local farmers and producers.
Representatives from 26 professional organizations from a cross-section of Puerto Rico’s economy, as well as thousands of businesses and workers, on Monday asked Gov. Alejandro García-Padilla and his administration for “transparency” and inclusion in the decision-making process to find solutions to the island’s precarious fiscal situation.
Senators Ramón Luis Nieves and José Nadal-Power announced Tuesday the filing of Bill 655 to promote "creative industries" in Puerto Rico, as a means of creating jobs and wealth.
Puerto Rico may have reached the limits of sustainable growth within its current institutional framework and its leaders must find the political will to make profound changes to the socio-economic structure to pull out of the seemingly unstoppable downward spiral the island is on and insert it squarely into the new globalized economy.
Government Development Bank President Javier Ferrer announced Monday the start of the 11th José M. Berrocal Finance and Economy Institute internship program, with the participation of 30 college students attending Puerto Rico and stateside universities.
The Puerto Rican government’s proposal to eliminate the business-to-business sales tax exemption is not a good idea and does not guarantee the $800 million in new revenue Gov. García-Padilla’s administration has predicted, because oversight and collections related to these transactions is a difficult task to achieve, Economist José J. Villamil said Thursday.
The Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association is preparing to mark its 85th anniversary during this year’s annual convention, when it will focus on ramping up its search for solutions to the island’s development and competitiveness challenges.
Puerto Rico Statistics Institute Executive Director Mario Marazzi asked the Legislature to assign the agency a budget of a little more than $1.2 million for fiscal 2014, when it has set out to undertake 25 projects to expand and improve information databases.
The second Economic Development Summit took place at the Puerto Rico Convention Center Tuesday, when members of Gov. Alejandro García-Padilla’s economic team summarized what agencies have been up to since January to further the administration’s agenda to spur private-sector jobs and activity.
Puerto Rico’s economy will need about $10 billion in new investments over the next three years to grow by at least 3.3 percent annually and find its way back to more prosperous pre-recession levels. In the absence of such an unlikely windfall, it will take more than a decade to circle back to acceptable levels of progress.
Puerto Rico’s executive branch has the necessary staff, resources and commitment to take over managing and resolving the island’s fiscal issues and block out all of the “noise” coming out of the Legislature, veteran Economist José Joaquín Villamil recently said.
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