Global Trade is a Key Growth Factor for SMEs in Latin America

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Global Trade is a Key Growth Factor for SMEs in Latin America

Company: ups, Profile: UPS, Date: 2012-05-02


US 05/02/12Miami, FLFor small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Latin America, engaging in global trade is essential to the success of their business.
According to the 2011 study, 60 percent of SMEs are currently engaged in global trade or plan to do so in the future.
As found in the fifth edition of the UPS Business Monitor Latin America (BMLA) study, 80 percent of executives state that global trade has been beneficial for economic growth.
Furthermore, executives in Brazil and Chile see global trade as most beneficial to companies with 50 to 250 employees.
When analyzing results of BMLA studies conducted after the 2008 crisis, SMEs have identified the opportunities for growth that exist beyond their borders and are gradually increasing their involvement in global trade.


Global Trade is a Key Growth Factor for SMEs in Latin America

US 05/02/12

Miami, FL

For small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Latin America, engaging in global trade is essential to the success of their business. As found in the fifth edition of the UPS Business Monitor Latin America (BMLA) study, 80 percent of executives state that global trade has been beneficial for economic growth. The BMLA, commissioned by UPS, surveyed more than 800 SME top-level executives in seven countries of the region lending insight into the latest opinions, attitudes and practices of SME decision makers throughout the region.

When analyzing results of BMLA studies conducted after the 2008 crisis, SMEs have identified the opportunities for growth that exist beyond their borders and are gradually increasing their involvement in global trade. According to the 2011 study, 60 percent of SMEs are currently engaged in global trade or plan to do so in the future. Furthermore, executives in Brazil and Chile see global trade as most beneficial to companies with 50 to 250 employees.

“Based on these results we see that overall engagement in global trade is an element for many businesses in the region,” said Griselda Hernandez, Americas Region customer process director. “Government and suppliers should come together and streamline as much as possible to allow SMEs – a vital force of the economy – to continue growing,” stated Hernandez.

SMEs face several obstacles when it comes to expanding their businesses globally. Ninety percent of the surveyed countries identify reliability in overseas suppliers as the issue that has affected their business the most over the past five years. Increases in delivery times and border delays were the second and third issues listed, respectively. Additionally, taxes on imports and exports were cited as the main barrier for global expansion.

As a result, surveyed executives do not have a positive outlook regarding growth of exports in the next year. Thirty three percent think their companies’ exports will remain at the same level and 30 percent believe it will slightly decrease. Only 5 percent think export activities will slightly grow.

According to Eduardo Gamarra, professor of Latin American and Caribbean politics at Florida International University, these results “show that executives in the region are still somewhat optimistic about the future and this is probably because their economies have not experienced the full impact of the global economic crisis.” Gamarra states that these survey results should be understood against the backdrop of the overall economic performance of the region. “The performance of the export sector in 2011 was still acceptable but economic indicators show that positive indicators may begin to decline.”

As revealed by the BMLA, surveyed SMEs feel that not only growth in Latin America but also trade other regions has remained stable with a significant increase in imports with respect to the 2010 survey.

Also, an area of interest for SMEs is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), being policies on environmental protection most mentioned activity, followed by donations to non-organizations (NGOs), community support programs and corporate activities.

Corporate social responsibility

aspect that can have an impact on a company’s performance is its engagement with society and the environment. Implementing corporate social responsibility initiatives allows businesses to sharpen decision-making, reduce costs and attract, retain and motivate employees, among other benefits. It was found that SMEs in the region commit to environmental protection causes the most (percent), followed by donations to NGOs (21 percent) and support programs for communities (18 percent). Furthermore, would like to develop more CSR activities related to education and training and environmental protection (43 and 24 percent respectively).

For more information and materials on the BMLA, please visit the UPS Pressroom.

For a brief video on the announcement please visit the UPS YouTube channel.

# # #

About the UPS Business Monitor Latin America

The UPS Business Monitor Latin America (BMLA), now in its fifth edition, provides an outlook on the current opinions, attitudes and trends among the business leaders of the small and medium size companies (SMEs) in the Region. The results of this study are based on the solid experience of the interviewees in the world of industry and trade.

Notes to editors:

The Business Monitor Latin America (BMLA) is a barometer of opinions, attitudes and practices of Latin America’s Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) decision-makers conducted between October and November 2011.

The BMLA is a study commissioned by UPS (NYSE: UPS) and was conducted by the leading market research group TNS Gallup in the following countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Mexico.

For its fifth edition, the BMLA interviewed 810 top-level SME executives with decision-making power across various industries.

For this survey, an SME is defined as a company with 250 employees or less, while the executives interviewed were those responsible for strategic decisions that have a direct impact on the future course of the company.

Figures may total less than 100% where only partial data are used or more than 100% where more than one response was allowed.

The results of the BMLA survey provide UPS, its customers, and others information on emerging issues and trends predicted to influence businesses in the region as they operate in the global marketplace.

About UPS

UPS (NYSE: UPS) is a global leader in logistics, offering a broad range of solutions including transporting packages and freight; facilitating international trade, and deploying advanced technology to more efficiently manage the world of business. Headquartered in Atlanta, UPS serves more than 220 countries and territories worldwide. The company can be found on the web at ups.com® and its corporate blog can be found at longitudes.ups.com. To get UPS news direct, visit pressroom.ups.com/RSS or follow @UPS_News on Twitter.

Company Information:

Company: ups, Profile: UPS, Date: 2012-05-02


US 05/02/12Miami, FLFor small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Latin America, engaging in global trade is essential to the success of their business.
According to the 2011 study, 60 percent of SMEs are currently engaged in global trade or plan to do so in the future.
As found in the fifth edition of the UPS Business Monitor Latin America (BMLA) study, 80 percent of executives state that global trade has been beneficial for economic growth.
Furthermore, executives in Brazil and Chile see global trade as most beneficial to companies with 50 to 250 employees.
When analyzing results of BMLA studies conducted after the 2008 crisis, SMEs have identified the opportunities for growth that exist beyond their borders and are gradually increasing their involvement in global trade.


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By | 2016-09-13T18:11:56+00:00 May 2nd, 2012|News, shippers, Shipping, ups|0 Comments

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