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PROMOTING GLOBAL BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES | DIALOGUE | CULTURAL EXCHANGE HILLSBOROUGH - PINELLAS - SARASOTA - MANATEE - POLK COUNTIES |
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Breaking News of Interest OAS Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin gives keynote address for World Trade Center Annual International Commerce Award Ceremony TAMPA...July 25, 2008 A. Bronson Thayer, chairman of the World Trade Center and World Affairs Council of Tampa Bay today announced the Honorable Ambassador Albert R. Ramdin, Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States - OAS has accepted an invitation to deliver the keynote address at the World Trade Center of Tampa Bay Annual International Commerce Award Ceremony. The ambassador will speak on “New Trends in the Americas: A Focus on the Caribbean”. The World Trade Center International Commerce Award is given to the company which has achieved exceptional international prominence in Tampa Bay, the State of Florida and The Caribbean. This year’s award will go to Mr. Rick Murrell, chairman and president of Tropical Shipping Lines. Last year’s award went to Mr. Richard Fain, chairman of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. The awards dinner will be held on July 25, 2008, 6:00pm-9:00pm at the University Club of Tampa in downtown Tampa. Ambassador Ramdin is highly recognized for his leadership and knowledge of the many important issues facing the Americas and greatly admired by leaders in Latin America and The Caribbean. Approximately 200 corporate executives from the Tampa Bay and Florida international community are expected to be in attendance. The Honorable Pam Iorio, Mayor City of Tampa will make remarks on her visions for Tampa’s Global Opportunities and introduce Ambassador Ramdin. A number of elected officials, including U.S. Representative Kathy Castor and representatives from the office of U.S. Senator Bill Nelson and U.S. Senator Mel Martinez office have been invited and are expected to attend. The Master of Ceremonies is former Tampa Mayor Dick Greco. The International Commerce Awards Dinner is open to the public, but a reservation is required. To make a reservation, please call 813.864.4500. Ambassador Ramdin Official Bio http://www.oas.org/documents/eng/biography_sgaE.asp
April 9, 2008
Tampa Bay Council of World Affairs
Council & Commerce Partners with World Trade Center to Increase
Tampa Bay's Global Connections
TAMPA...April 9, 2008 The newly formed Tampa Bay Council of World Affairs Council & Commerce will become a partner of the World Trade Center Tampa Bay effective April 16, 2008, based on a mutual agreement between Stephen Albee, founder of the Council on World Affairs and the executive committee of the World Trade Center Tampa Bay. The agreement was made between John C. Bierley and Frank Cisneros, both members of the executive committee of the World Trade Center Tampa Bay and Albee. "The purpose of this relationship is to provide an opportunity for business professionals, corporations, academic institutions and interested individuals alike to become more involved and informed, said Mr. Bierley. World affairs are a mix of business, trade, politics and a number of cultural issues, which all impact Tampa Bay, the State of Florida, the United States and the world," he said. "The World Trade Center will continue to focus on becoming the lead organization in the seven county region and to be the primary leader in disseminating and creating a greater awareness in the community of the many aspects of international trade and world affairs." Mr. Albee will assume the duties of Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of the World Trade Center Tampa Bay and will direct all program development. "The World Affairs Council will remain as the Speaker's Forum to bring important speakers to Tampa Bay to discuss issues which impact our ability to successfully develop business and trade," Mr. Albee said. "This is a perfect fit in that we can develop programs which help to increase regional global business and trade opportunities through the World Trade Center, and also offer insight into those issues which affect trade opportunities," according to Albee, who has more than 25 years experience in international business development, in both the public and private sectors. There is no trade unless governments agree to cooperate. "Most of the time it's diplomacy and politics which decide if trade can be conducted between two countries. We want to offer the community the benefit of programs to help them develop internationally, but also to provide opportunities to be informed for those who want to only stay aware of world affairs," Mr. Albee said. The Honorable Bob Graham, the three-term United States Senator and two-term Florida Governor was the keynote speaker at the inaugural meeting of the new World Trade Center/World Affairs Council on March 21, 2008, He spoke America's Global Reputation and Strategies For The Future. Dr. Terry McCoy, Director, Latin America Studies Programs, University of Florida, spoke on Hugo Chavez and Venezuela on Friday, April 11. See www.tampabayworldaffairs.com for program details. Meetings are open to non-members. The council was formed to offer a venue of opportunities to visiting international dignitaries, foreign governmental officials, academic experts, foreign business executives and recognized journalists to address some of the major issues facing different parts of the world, and to learn more about foreign markets and countries. With this merger, the emphasis will be on creating a deeper understanding of cultures and the thinking of foreign leaders, plus making members feel more comfortable traveling and doing business in countries around the world.
The new Board of Directors for WTCTB/WAC is composed
of 25 individuals from Hillsborough, Pinellas, Hernando, Pasco,
Polk, Manatee and Sarasota counties. Basic membership is $100 a year
for an individual. Other memberships for corporate and trustee
status are also available. The World Trade Center and is open to any
business or individual interested in learning to do business abroad
or staying abreast of international affairs.
After trouble in U.S., swoon in real estate goes global
By MARK LANDLER April 14, 2008 DUBLIN, Ireland — The collapse of the housing bubble in the United States is mutating into a global phenomenon, with real estate prices swooning from the Irish countryside and the Spanish coast to Baltic seaports and even parts of northern India. This synchronized global slowdown, which has become increasingly stark in recent months, is hobbling economic growth worldwide, affecting not just homes but jobs as well. In Ireland, Spain, Britain and elsewhere, housing markets that soared over the last decade are falling back to earth. Property analysts predict that some countries, like Ireland, will face an even more wrenching adjustment than that of the United States, including the possibility that the downturn could become a wholesale collapse. To some extent, the world's problems are a result of American contagion. As home financing and credit tighten in response to the crisis that began in the subprime mortgage market, analysts worry that other countries could suffer the mortgage defaults and foreclosures that have afflicted California, Florida and other states. Citing the reverberations of the American housing bust and credit squeeze, the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday cut its forecast for global economic growth this year and warned that the malaise could extend into 2009. "The problems in the U.S. are being transmitted to Europe," said Michael Ball, professor of urban and property economics at the University of Reading in Britain, who studies housing prices. "What's happening now is an awful lot more grief than we expected." For countries like Ireland, where prices were even more inflated than in the United States, it has been a painful education, as homeowners learn the American vocabulary of misery. "We know we're already in negative equity," said Emma Linnane, a 31-year-old university administrator. She bought a cozy, one-bedroom apartment in the Dublin suburbs with her fiance, Paul Colgan, in May 2006, at the peak of the market. They paid $575,000 -- at least $100,000 more than it would fetch today. "I sometimes get shivers thinking about it," Linnane said, "but I'll let the reality hit me when I go to sell it." That reality is spreading. Once-sizzling housing markets in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states are cooling rapidly, as nervous Western Europeans stop buying investment properties in Warsaw, Poland; Tallinn, Estonia; and other real estate Klondikes. Farther east, in India and southern China, prices are no longer surging. With stock markets down sharply after reaching heady levels, people do not have as much cash to buy property. Sales of apartments in Hong Kong, a normally hyperactive market, have slowed recently, with prices for mass-market flats starting to drop. In New Delhi and other parts of northern India, prices have fallen 20 percent over the last year.Sanjay Dutt, an executive director in the Mumbai office of Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate firm, describes it as an erosion of confidence. Much of the retrenchment seems to be following the basic law of gravity: What goes up must come down. With low interest rates helping to inflate housing bubbles in many countries, economists said the confluence of falling prices was predictable, if unsettling. This is not the first housing downturn to cross borders, but its reverberations have been amplified by the integration of financial markets. When faulty American mortgages end up on the books of European banks, the problems of the United States aggravate the world's problems. Consider Britain, which had one of Europe's most robust housing markets, with less of an oversupply than in Ireland or Spain. Then last summer came the subprime crisis across the Atlantic. Within two months, mortgage approvals dropped 31 percent, compared with the previous year. And by March, average housing prices had fallen 2.5 percent, the largest monthly decline since 1992. "The boom in house prices was actually much bigger here than in the U.S.," said Kelvin Davidson, an economist at Capital Economics in London. "If anything, people should be more worried than in the U.S." Britain has one of the most developed home-financing industries, not far behind that of the United States. The amount of outstanding mortgage debt, as a share of total economic output, is higher there than in the United States, according to a study by the International Monetary Fund. "The U.K. followed the U.S. into never-never land, pushing mortgages out the door, believing that prices would go up forever," said Allan Saunderson, the managing editor of Property Finance Europe, a newsletter for investors. Still, the problems in Britain pale next to those of Spain and Ireland. Residential investment accounts for 12 percent of the Irish economy and 9 percent of the Spanish economy, compared with 5 percent in Britain and 4 percent in the United States, according to the IMF. The glut of housing has brought new construction to a standstill, driving up unemployment and dimming the prospects for two of Europe's stellar performers over the last decade. "We're waking up from the property dream and finding ourselves in a situation where prices are falling in Spain for the first time," said Fernando Encinar, a founder of Idealista.com, a real estate Web site. In Spain, more than 4 million homes were built in the last decade, more than in Germany, Britain and France combined. Average house prices tripled in parts of the country, as Spain's torrid economy attracted immigrants and Northern Europeans snapped up holiday homes along the Costa del Sol. Now, though, thousands of those houses stand empty. The IMF estimates that property is overvalued by more than 15 percent. With mortgages drying up and prices swooning, speculators who once viewed Spanish property as a no-lose proposition are confronting hard reality. In 2005, Julian Felipe Fernandez bought three small apartments, as an investment, in a huge development being built outside Madrid. He paid 100,000 euros as a deposit for the units, and now he is eager to sell them to avoid having to taking on a costly mortgage. But with the market stalled, Fernandez's asking price is just what he paid for them. "Three years ago, it looked like I would be able to flip them for a nice profit before they were finished," he said. "I just want to get them off my hands, to get rid of this headache." If he unloads them, he will be lucky. Enric Bueno, head of marketing for Ibusa, a real estate company in Barcelona, said his firm was closing six or seven sales a month, compared with 40 a month a year ago. "Things are really bad," Bueno said. "If this goes on for five years, we won't make it.
HUGO CHAVEZ'S VENEZUELA - WHAT'S GOING ON AND WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE? President Hugo Chavez ordered the nationalization of Venezuela's cement industry, saying his government cannot allow businesses to continue exporting raw materials needed to help tackle a domestic housing shortage. http://www.miamiherald.com/business/AP/story/482293.htmlVenezuela rejects documents, rebel ties Venezuela is refusing to recognize documents that Colombia says show President Hugo Chavez planned to provide $300 million to Colombia's largest rebel group.Chávez raises heat on opposition TV President Hugo Chávez's dismantling of the critical press looks to be continuing as the leftist leader whips up public support to shut down Globovisión -- less than a year after he refused to renew the license of the country's most popular TV station.
TAMPA—More than 400 delegates representing ports and steel interests from across the United States and several foreign countries converged in Tampa for the 19th Annual Port of Tampa Steel Conference, held February 28-29, at the Tampa Marriott Waterside. The two-day educational and networking steel conference, co-hosted by the Tampa Port Authority and Ports America Group, featured a panel of industry experts who addressed some of the most relevant topics in the steel industry today and offered some debate about the economic forecast.
Click here for full story: Port of Tampa Steel Conference
Newly Formed World Affairs Council to discuss business, trade, tourism, education, healthcare, energy, global warming, economic, political, cultural and social issues
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