Capital Analytics is excited to announce the newest edition of our media platform: Invest:Insights. Putting a face and voice to business leaders in market, our unique video platform gives our viewers unparalleled access to decision makers in market. Capital Analytics celebrated this new platform with a lovely cocktail hour attended by local business leaders at the St. Regis Bal Harbour.
Invest: Miami reports will be given to all delegates attending the event.
By: Nicholas O’Connor, AméricaEconomía
Colombia’s president Juan Manuel Santos and his government enjoyed a successful 2015. His persistence in negotiations with the FARC led to what looks to be a peaceful solution to a conflict that claimed the lives of thousands of Colombians and caused the displacement of thousands more.
His recent visit to the US also had positive results. Barack Obama pledged $450 million in aid in order to continue US support for Plan Colombia. The successful initiative has been rechristened Peace Colombia and will look to solidify the achievements made since the inception of the first aid plan over 15 years ago.
Colombia’s stability has not gone unnoticed in Latin America either. AméricaEconomía Intelligence recently published the results of its Ranking of Latin American Finance Ministers for 2015. The ranking is constructed with input from the region’s top economists as well as the readers of the magazine. Mauricio Cárdenas, Colombia’s Finance Minister since 2012, was named in top spot. This comes as an improvement on his second place finish in 2014. Cárdenas performance stood out due to the steps he has taken in order to improve the country’s macroeconomic stability and to strengthen its financial institutions. The success is even more remarkable considering that oil production makes up a large part of Colombia’s economic output.
Chile’s Rodrigo Valdés came in in second place. The results show that his work is highly rated at an international level which comes as a slight contrast to how he is viewed locally. The Chilean economy continues to stutter as copper prices remain low. Last years poll topper, Panama’s Dulcidio de la Guardia, completes the podium. The growth of Panama’s economy continues to lead the region although there are some concerns over the continued delays related to the expansion of the canal.
Returning to the theme of Colombia, it must now be recognized that Plan Colombia was a success. Hundreds of millions of US dollars helped bring one of Latin America’s oldest democracies back from the brink of failure. Alvaro Uribe, President of Colombia from 2002 to 2007, played a key role in the process and will still have a key role to play in the country’s future. Unfortunately, current relations between Uribe and Santos are not fantastic. The former President has been vociferous in his criticism of his successor. It is important that the two learn to work together as both will be present at the heart of Colombian politics for the foreseeable future.
Cárdenas has been rumored to be a potential successor for Santos when his term finishes in 2018. An astute politician he has been a steadfast ally for Santos and has been openly showing his support for the President’s Austeridad Inteligente(Intelligent Austerity) policy that calls for a reduction of government expenditure. Cárdenas, eager to show his support, tweeted a photo of his economy class air ticket to Davos last month. If he can manage to keep Colombia’s economy ticking over during the next few years of low commodity prices, he will be well positioned by the time the 2018 elections come around. Many presume that he will have to face off against the aforementioned Alvaro Uribe. A tough task indeed, but his chances have been given a boost with this award.
AméricaEconomía is Latin America’s leading business publication. Its international edition is complimented by local editions based in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay. In 2016 the magazine will launch a Central American edition with circulation in Panamá, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.
AméricaEconomía is keenly read by a growing regional community of businessmen and businesswomen, entrepreneurs, executives and senior officials who need to understand the region from local, regional and global context.
By: Nicholas O’Connor, AméricaEconomía
For many years AméricaEconomía Intelligence has published its ranking of the best cities to do business in Latin America. The detailed study takes various factors such as the city’s PIB, its PIB per capita and the presence of investment banks into account. Other important elements are the unemployment rate and the number of destinations that the city’s airport serves. Miami has long been included in the ranking due to the fact that a significant amount of Latin American companies have their head offices in Florida.
The other cities in the ranking face stiff competition, as Miami tends to receive top marks in nearly every category. Santiago de Chile is in second place with Mexico City coming in in third. Santiago managed to maintain its position due to the large presence of multinational companies in the city and its high score on the human capital index. The stability of the Chilean capital is its real strong point but environmentalists will be keeping an eye on the levels of pollution that have manifested themselves over the past few years. Smog has become a real problem for the city, which is situated in a bowl between the Andes and a coastal mountain range. The snowy peaks of the Andes are often hidden by a thick haze. Addressing this problem will be a big challenge for the city over the next decade.
Mexico City managed to move up past Sao Paulo and into third place. The economic crisis in Brazil has had a significant impact on the Brazilian cities in terms of how they are viewed as good places to do business. Sao Paulo dropped just the one spot on the table but Rio de Janeiro slipped five places to 14th. With the political and economic turmoil set to continue over the coming year it is unlikely that Brazilian cities will be nearing the top of next years ranking.
Due to the fact that Miami tends to steamroll the other cities in most categories it is interesting to examine the sections where Miami loses out to Latin American hubs. One area that stands out is suburban transport. The metro systems in Santiago, Mexico City and Sao Paulo provide hundreds of kilometres of underground rail networks, which manage to somewhat ease the pressure on their road systems. Unfortunately for Miami, southern Florida will never be an apt location for the construction of subways. A potential solution would be an upgrade of the over ground rail services currently available.
Another area where Miami is lacking is in the presence of global companies. AE Intelligence compiled a list of 37 global companies whose presence was deemed important in a city looking to attract business. Miami enjoys the presence of only 15 of those companies with Santiago and Mexico City hosting 23 and 27 respectively. If one was to search for any faults it could perhaps be claimed that Miami is too focused on Latin America. However, for AméricaEconomía that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
AméricaEconomía is keenly read by a growing regional community of businessmen and businesswomen, entrepreneurs, executives and senior officials who need to understand the region from local, regional and global context.
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With a clear mission of establishing Miami as the tech hub of the Americas, eMerge Americas has made its mark on the technology scene in a short amount of time. Once the idea was conceived, the Technology Foundation of the Americas was created to help advance the tech ecosystem.
Now in its third year, Miami’s homegrown tech conference is building momentum, attracting a global audience, and connecting investors with innovators.
Our VIP luncheon officially launches this year’s edition of Invest: Miami’s annual publication. While Miami’s real estate, tourism and financial industries have propelled the market to international prominence, some of the newest and largest investments underway can be found in the city’s emerging technology sector. This emphasis on innovation was the focal point of Invest: Miami 2016, a publication exploring the most salient issues facing Miami-Dade County. The second-annual publication by Capital Analytics Associates is a 200-page economic analysis that highlights business opportunities for investors, entrepreneurs and innovators alike looking to South Florida.
The region’s top business and civic leaders had first access to the Invest: Miami 2016 publication during a sold-out VIP luncheon on Thursday, April 14, 2016 at the InterContinental Miami. Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ superintendent Alberto Carvalho, a proponent of technology in the classroom as a means to boost student achievement, served as the event’s keynote speaker.
Check out photos from the event and watch the event recap below!
This year’s four-member panel of leading business experts included Steven Altschuler, CEO of UHealth; Eugene W. Anderson, Dean of the University of Miami School of Business Administration; Brian Bracken, CEO of Kairos; and Jaret Davis, Miami Co-Managing Shareholder of Greenberg Traurig. The panel explored the ways in which technology is driving investment in the South Florida market and evolving tech trends across sectors.
“Our first publication served as an introduction to Miami, both in terms of growth and economic diversification,” said Abby Melone, executive director of Invest: Miami. “Its overwhelmingly positive reception ensured we would follow up the inaugural launch with an even deeper look at how market newcomers and veterans can take advantage of the region’s investment opportunities.”
Over the course of a six-month research period, the Invest: Miami team met with over 200 top senior-level executives in Miami-Dade County in intimate, one-on-one discussions. These executives came from a broad spectrum and the perspectives collected from these exclusive discussions became the basis of the contents of the 2016 issue.
For more information about the event, please write to contact@capitalaa.com.
Capital Analytics is excited to announce that the Startup Angels team will bring AngelSummit Americas to Miami. This is the first-ever summit dedicated to startup investing across North, Central and South America.
Join 300+ startup influencers, investors, industry and community leaders to share best practices and learn from others about angel investing in Miami, the US, and across the hemisphere.
Speakers include Dave McClure of 500 Startups; Marc Nager of Techstars; Alex Mittal of FundersClub, John McIntire of Cuba Emprende.
Highlights of AngelSummit Americas:
• Experience the debut of the Lean Angel Workshops. Developed under the guidance of Brad Feld and other startup investing leaders, the workshop will provide new investors an introduction to the business of investing in technology startups.
• Attend eMerge Americas. All AngelSummit participants have a complimentary ticket to eMerge, the largest business conference in Florida attracting thousands of participants from the US and Latin America.
Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity!