New Mexican Airport

MEXICO CITY, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Mexican airport operator Asur will fight to take part in the bidding process for a planned airport in the Riviera Maya region which will drain passenger traffic away from its key runways at the resort of Cancun.

Chief Financial Officer Adolfo Castro said on Thursday Asur will take the case to court if government authorities do not allow the company to bid for the rights to build and run the airport in Quintana Roo state.

The government has not yet decided if Asur can participate in the bidding process. The sticking point is competition because Asur already operates nine airports in Mexico's southeast, including Cancun.

"If they do not allow us to participate we will use all the legal tools that we have in hand in order to protect our rights and in order to be part of the bidding process," Castro told a conference call with analysts.

Full Story

Importance: Yet another case of stifling "monopolies" in the name of competition in the Mexican government-business relationship. With the world economy in a decline, I find it odd that the Mexican government is increasing its business taxes. On an economic side note, the Mexican stock market gained on Thursday and the peso strengthened (another Reuters story...)

GRADE THIS POST!!!!!

FDA Issues Warning on Toxic Fish in Gulf of Mexico

The U. S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning this week to seafood processors regarding toxic fish in the Gulf of Mexico, after several outbreaks of ciguatera fish poisoning were confirmed.

The letter from the FDA was sent Tuesday and warns seafood processors that fish such as grouper, snapper, amberjack and barracuda feed on fish that have eaten toxin marine algae, which makes them a threat to consumers, the Associated Press reported.

The toxic fish were all harvested in the Northern Gulf of Mexico, near the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, the FDA said, near the coast of Texas and Louisiana.

Symptoms of ciguatera poisoning include nausea, vomiting, vertigo and joint pain; the illness can be debilitating, as neurological symptoms can last for months or even years, the AP informs.

Click here for full story.

Importance: This story is especially relevant to both the U.S. and Mexico. This one instance can make or break future relation between the two countries. The illnesses resulting from the toxic fish need to be regarded as serious and highly dangerous.

Grade this post!

Seeing US Slowdown, Mexico Cuts Growth

Mexico indicated Wednesday it expects the downturn in the U.S. will mean much slower growth this year for its own economy, which depends on its northern neighbor for the bulk of its trade and investment.

The Treasury Department said it was lowering its forecast for Mexico's 2008 economic growth to 2.8 percent from 3.7 percent — a 24 percent drop.

"It is expected that the prevalent international economic scenario in 2008 will be less favorable for Mexico than what was anticipated," the department said in a report posted on its Web site.
More than any other country in Latin America, Mexico's economic fate is tied to the U.S., its partner in the North American Free Trade Agreement. Mexico sends more than 80 percent of its exports to the U.S., which is also Mexico's largest source of direct foreign investment and remittances.

Full story...here

Importance: This shows that Mexico relies heavily on the U.S. in terms of economic growth. When our economy drops, Mexico's does as well. This coupled with the economic problem of farming and farmer's income has many wondering when the Mexican economy will get back on track.

Grade this post!

Prepaid Television

Mexican media company Grupo Televisa SAB (TV), moving to snap up customers as greater competition looms in the pay TV market, started this week selling the country's first prepaid satellite television cards.

Prepaid cards for Sky Mexico, Televisa's satellite service in partnership with DirecTV Group Inc. (DTV), "use the same payment systems as cell phones, and you only pay for what you use," Televisa said Thursday in a press release.

The idea comes at a time when the country's telecom and cable companies are implementing "triple play" - the bundling of Internet, phone and video on the same network.

Televisa unit Empresas Cablevision SAB (CABLE.MX) is among cable companies that have started offering phone service, while the country's biggest fixed-line phone company, Telefonos de Mexico SAB (TMX), or Telmex, plans to start selling video this year.

Marco Rojas, director of marketing at Sky Mexico, said in a telephone interview that the rollout of prepaid television was more than partly motivated by the prospects of increased competition.

Here's the full article

Importance: Mexican economists often worry about the level of competition in many of the nation's industries; here is an example of a firm in the cable industry that has worked to become the market leader and is working to remain that way. The concerns Mexico is facing about its economy reveals the degree of modernization the nation has reached; it makes it hard to believe that a country that is beginning to succeed at fostering a growing, stable economy is also struggling with abolishing the drug cartels that have been plaguing many of its cities for so long.

GRADE THIS POST!