Latin American E-Commerce Focus of CELAB Conference
The USF Center for Latin American Business and the Pan-American Society of California together sponsored the 2nd annual Latin American E-Commerce Summit in February at the Fairmont Hotel. The conference brought together government leaders from Argentina and Chile, as well as leaders from top e-commerce businesses, including Nortel Networks and Yahoo! Brazil.
“One of the things that became clear from the conference is that the governments in Latin America are tuned into e-commerce now,” said Stephen Calvert, a business professor and director of the Center for Latin American Business. “Governments are beginning to recognize that they do have an important role to play to make e-commerce work better. They realize that maybe it’s time to try to foster an environment that will encourage e-commerce. That is an important revelation for Latin America. Governments now are trying to make it easier for businesses. We didn’t hear that last year.”
From the business perspective, the theme of the conference was clear: Despite recent downturns in the electronic industry, enormous opportunity exists in Latin America for companies with good business plans to make e-commerce work well.
Latin American government leaders unanimously reported explosive growth of internet use in their countries, particularly in the area of e-commerce. Their biggest obstacle remains access. The Brazilian government, like many others, is working to establish public “telecenters” to make the internet accessible to all, even those who can not afford home computers, said Oscar Fernandez, Brazil’s secretary for industrial technology.
The conference was about more than helping businesses break into the Latin American market.
“As a business school, our perspective does center on business issues,” Calvert said. “But we are a Jesuit institution with social justice goals. We believe that a capitalist economy can foster these end goals. If Latin America did not take advantage of e-commerce, it would put them at a huge disadvantage and widen the existing chasm of social structures between the north and south.”
USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J., echoed these sentiments during his welcome address at the conference.
“I want to underscore the importance of a much larger issue—the economic well-being of both Americas,” Fr. Privett said. “It is a truism that the distance that once separated us has been eliminated by electronic communication.
“This represents an opportunity for global economic development that I hope you will capitalize on... I hope that you will participate in today’s deliberations and discussions with some attention given to realizing e-commerce’s potential to contribute to the economic development of all people, especially the poor.”
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