(Miami Hurled) Honduras' business leaders hope elections restore investors' faith

[Mika]

Honduras' business leaders hope elections restore investors' faith
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/1398668.html

Honduras' business leaders are hoping the recent presidential elections will
help restore faith among international investors and local consumers.

BY LAURA FIGUEROA
[e-mail]

TEGUCIGALPA -- Just days after Honduras' recent presidential elections, Tegucigalpa Chamber of Commerce members gathered for their monthly meeting and breathed a collective sigh of relief.

``Finally, we can get back to business,'' said Luisa Maria Willingham, the chamber's director.

For five months, talks of networking and sales projections were put on hold as business owners tried to navigate through the civil unrest caused by the forced removal of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in June.

Getting back to business now means facing the harsh economic landscape of a country that has essentially been on standby for half of the year.

Almost 180,000 jobs have been lost since Zelaya's ouster, according to studies by Honduran business groups. A study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., found that nearly $50 million was lost each day during a series of curfews imposed by the de facto government.

While the Nov. 29 elections won by conservative Porfirio Lobo are seen by many as the country's way out of political turmoil, business leaders are hoping that international acceptance of the election will also restore faith among foreign investors and local consumers.

``Foreign businesses often have a fear of investing in Latin America because of the problems that have resulted from someone like Hugo Chávez nationalizing businesses,'' said Adolfo Facusse, president of the National Association of Honduran Industry.

``What Honduras has demonstrated is that we're not going to follow in the political path of Chávez,'' Facusse said. ``Many business owners will look at what happened here, will note our elections and see Honduras as a more stable place where the government will not try to take over your business.''

Already the third-poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, the country's weak economy suffered even more setbacks in the months following Zelaya's removal.

Tourism dried up as leery travelers kept away and the U.S. State Department issued warnings against traveling to the beleaguered nation.

Infrastructure projects, which employ thousands of Hondurans, remain on hold after the United States and the European Union withdrew millions in financial aid. Nearly $37 million in U.S. aid has been suspended, a substantial amount for a country where foreign aid accounts for nearly 20 percent of its budget. Throughout the capital city, shop owners try to lure in customers, despite running their shops behind windows boarded up to keep vandalizing protesters at bay.

``As soon as people feel safe by the new government, which promises to be a reconciliation government, then we're going to be ok,'' said chamber director Willingham. ``The clarity of the political map in our country, and the overwhelming amount of people who showed up to vote, will demonstrate the faith that our people have that our country is moving forward in the right direction.''

INDEPENDENT HOPES

Moving forward, business leaders say they have gleaned several economic lessons in the five months of political and economic isolation -- namely that they must try to reduce dependence on foreign assistance and trade.

``We learned the hard way that governments have interests, not friends,'' Willingham said. ``We have depended too much on the good will and donations of other countries. We really need to start moving in the direction of becoming self-sufficient.''

Willingham said her chamber is doing its part to revitalize small businesses -- by training folks accustomed to selling goods from their home on ways to formalize their business practices and expand their ventures.

Business leaders are pegging their hopes that Lobo, a wealthy cattle rancher, will use his business prowess to boost economic development. Lobo is a graduate of the University of Miami's business school.

``The first thing that needs to be done is to create a plan for the next four years that should be a long-term plan to create the conditions for investment in our country,'' said Amilcar Builnes, director of the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise.

`RESTORING FAITH'

Builnes was among a dozen high-profile Hondurans whom Lobo called upon just days after his victory for the first of many ``national dialogues,'' which the new president hopes will fuse rifts created by the political crisis.

The council will be launching an outreach campaign to help assure foreign investors that it is safe to resume business with Honduras. Builnes said Honduras must now work on establishing better trade relations with its Central American neighbors.

``We're the No. 1 business purchaser of other Central American countries, but we're not sending enough of our products to them,'' Builnes said.

He added: ``The nature of the elections was a great starting point, but now we have to get back on course to working on restoring faith in our economy.''