At the heart of this agenda is the understanding of the role of business in society.

This paper brings together an international business leader, Niall FitzGerald, former Chairman and CEO of Unilever and Chairman of Reuters, and corporate responsibility executive, Mandy Cormack, who headed up Corporate Responsibility at Unilever.

For five years they worked closely on this agenda, building internal understanding, defining the priorities for action and engaging in the worldwide external debate. Drawing on this experience, they have come together here to explore why the role of business in society is on the agenda of the Chief Executive and Board of leading international companies and what they can do about it.

In a perfect world, scientists share problems and work together on solutions for the good of society. In the real world, however, that's usually not the case. The main obstacles: competition for publication and intellectual property protection.

Is there a model for encouraging large-scale scientific problem solving? Yes, and it comes from an unexpected and unrelated corner of the universe: open source software development.

That's the view of Karim R. Lakhani, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School with an extensive research background in open source software communities and their innovation and product development strategies. His latest research analyzes how open source norms of transparency, permeable access, and collaboration might work with scientists.

Discussions about the risk of emerging technologies must acknowledge that their major impacts have rarely been spotted in advance.

homunculus blog

The Lemelson Foundation and Ashoka: Innovators for the Public have partnered on a $4 million Ashoka-Lemelson Fellowship Program to recognize and provide support to 100 leading social entrepreneurs throughout the developing world over the next three years.
Ashoka, a global citizen sector organization that invests in social entrepreneurs, and The Lemelson Foundation, which celebrates and supports inventors and entrepreneurs, share a common goal -- to strengthen social and economic life around the world.

The Ashoka-Lemelson Fellowship program will identify and support 100 inventor-entrepreneurs over the next three years to catalyze their growth and impact. Fellows will receive financial support, professional guidance, and access to a global network spanning more than 70 countries.

"We are thrilled to partner with Ashoka on this initiative to help inventors launch sustainable enterprises that will improve the lives of individuals around the globe," said Julia Novy-Hildesley, Executive Director of The Lemelson Foundation.

The Fellows will be selected according to Ashoka's long-established search-and-selection methodology and five criteria: a systems-changing new idea, creativity, entrepreneurial quality, social impact of the idea, and ethical fiber of the applicant.

Bill Drayton, Founder and CEO of Ashoka, commented, "Our partnership with the Lemelson Foundation capitalizes on the historical moment society now has to dramatically increase the number of problem-solvers around the world and underscores the significance of innovation."

http://www.ashoka.org/

FreeCulture.org tiene el agrado de invitarlos a participar en el conversatorio sobre "Aplicaciones Sociales de las TICs".

El evento se realizara este Viernes 1 de Diciembre de 5pm-8pm en la Sala B102 de la Facultad de Ciencias e Ingenieria en el Campus PUCP.

Programa

5:00 - 5:30 Presentacion del Informe Acceso Universal en Latinoamerica
5:30 - 6:30 Conversatorio sobre Aplicaciones Sociales de las TICs
6:30 - 7:30 Presentacion de Microsoft Educacion
7:30 - 8:00 Conclusiones

El equipo de FreeCulture.org celebra de antemano su participación en este evento.

INGRESO LIBRE

The Information Economy Report 2006: The Development Perspective provides unique data on the adoption of ICT by enterprises in developing countries. It also explores ICT policy options in a developing-country context and proposes a framework for national ICT policy reviews and for the design and assessment of pro-poor e-strategies.

The Report´s analysis of trends in core ICT indicators such as the use of Internet and mobile phone, as well as the role of broadband in promoting the information economy, concludes that the diffusion of ICT in developing countries still needs government intervention in areas where private providers might be discouraged to go because of costs associated to geographic hurdles or the absence of a critical mass of customers. Other conclusions are that broadband is key to developing an information economy, and that industrial and trade policies in ICT-producing developing countries should support the creation of business opportunities in ICT-related industries. UNCTAD´s research on measuring the impact of ICTs on GDP in developing countries reveals a positive contribution even in poorer countries. But countries that already have a certain level of ICT uptake seem to benefit most from the new technologies.

The Report presents a model ICT policy review framework developed by UNCTAD which is illustrated with best practice examples from developing countries. Conducting ICT policy reviews, as recommended in the Report, would enable governments to understand the policy challenges and opportunities, and quantify the main achievements regarding the implementation of the national ICT plan; identify critical success factors, best practices and conditions, as well as reasons for failure, in order to be able to adjust and reform their ICT policies; and formulate new and targeted policy decisions to support and accelerate ICT diffusion.

Fuel Cells 2000 and the United States Department of Energy Hydrogen
Program have launched a new searchable database that documents fuel cell and hydrogen activity in the United States - stationary installations, vehicle demonstrations, fueling stations, and policies, initiatives and legislation designed to advance the development and use of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.

The FREE DATABASE is available at
http://www.fuelcells.org/statedatabase.html

Asterisk® can now be easily configured with a graphical interface. The new site, AsteriskNOW.org, which is still in development, hosts AsteriskNOW™ Beta. AsteriskNOW™ Beta is a Software Appliance; a GUI implementation with the open source Asterisk distribution. AsteriskNOW includes all the Linux components necessary to run, debug and build Asterisk, and only those components, so installation is easy. You no longer have to worry about kernel versions and package dependencies. Unlike other Linux distributions used to deploy Asterisk, no unnecessary components that might compromise security or performance are included.

Season of Usability 2006/2007 is a series of sponsored student projects to encourage students of usability, user-interface design, and interaction design to get involved with Freee/Libre/Open-Source
Software (FLOSS) projects.

FLOSS offers an excellent way to gain experience in the
interdisciplinary and collaborative development of user interface
solutions in international software projects. During a three-month
cooperation, you will closely work together with experienced
professionals and get insights in to their way of work.

Each Season of Usability project has challenging goals and is mentored by an experienced usability specialist. The projects represent different fields of application, such as media players, document viewers, VoIP, printing, layout or blogging.

Browse the openings online: www.openusability.org/season

Depending on your location, you will be invited to a meeting with the
development and usability team. Otherwise the collaboration will take
place via the established channels of OSS development - email, IRC,
VoIP, and etc.

Season of Usability projects are sponsored with $700USD. An involvement of 15 hours per week is expected.

If you are a student of usability, user-interface design, and
interaction design or related subjects send us your application for one
of the project openings:

Contact: students at openusability org

Application Deadline: 2006 December, 15

Project Timeframe: 2007 January - March/April

Qualification: All projects require experience in interface and
interaction design and/or usability analysis methods. However, this is
meant to be a learning experience, so don't worry as long as you
understand the basics in design and usability.

Further information: www.openusability.org/season

At the end of another school day in Acornhoek – a rural community in the semi-arid eastern part of South Africa – children shriek with laughter as they whirl each other around on a colorful merry-go-round. Women carry home buckets of water. Boys chase a football.

But there is more to this scene than meets the eye. Forty meters under ground, each turn of the merry-go-round powers a pump. At 16 rotations per minute, it pumps water effortlessly to a 2,500-liter storage tank, supplying the needs of the entire community at the turn of a tap.

The storage tank above the children’s heads displays four billboards. These carry educational, public health and HIV/AIDS prevention messages, as well as commercial advertising, generating enough revenue to fund ten years’ maintenance of the system.

wipo.int

Prize4Life, Inc., a non-profit organization founded to accelerate Lou Gehrig’s disease research, has offered a $1 million incentive to help advance the treatment for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. “This important challenge, identifying an ALS ‘biomarker,’ is an effort to identify a specific measurement for the disease that can aid in detection and response to therapy,” said Jill A. Panetta, Ph.D., InnoCentive’s Chief Scientific Officer.

“Valid biomarkers will enhance our understanding of the pathological process in ALS and our ability to gauge treatment efficacy,” said Robert H. Brown, M.D., D.Phil. Brown is a member of the Prize4Life Scientific Board, as well as founder and director of the Day Neuromuscular Research Laboratory, director of the Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital, and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. Brown added, “Such markers can potentially speed up drug discovery protocols and substantially shorten time and expense for treatment trials in ALS.”

“We are honored to partner with Prize4Life to accelerate ALS research allowing them to tap into our problem solving community of more than 110,000 scientists,” said Ali Hussein, InnoCentive’s chief marketing officer and vice president global markets. “Our network is the fastest and most efficient way for research institutions to share their breakthroughs with the business communities who can develop these discoveries for the marketplace,” added Hussein. “Prize4Life posted this challenge on the InnoCentive Web site, recognizing that this approach is an efficient way in which to gather a wide diversity of ideas and scientific approaches in hopes of quickly solving this significant disease,” said Hussein.

Researchers and scientists interested in offering a solution for the biomarker challenges must register on InnoCentive’s Web site, www.innocentive.com.

group of Mexican scientists have set up a discussion space to increase awareness within the scientific community regarding research ethics and social responsibility in science.

The Union of Scientists Committed to Society (UCCS) was launched last week (November 8) in Mexico City.

The founders say that scientific research should contribute more towards understanding and resolving the pressing issues in Mexican society, ranging from environmental sustainability to social injustice or the gaps in access to technology.

To this end, the union will launch a year-long cycle of monthly round-table discussions coordinated by leading experts on topics such as the use of genetically modified organisms to improve food security, the interaction between science and indigenous knowledge and science communication through broadcast media.

Interdisciplinary teams, mostly made up of postgraduate students, will research important themes. Their findings will be made accessible to nongovernmental organisations, the media, educational institutes and government organisations.

http://www.unionccs.org/

Many people believe that modern medicine is continuing to significantly improve global health. Polio has been nearly eradicated, smallpox eliminated, and it will only be a matter of time before cures for all other diseases are found. However, this confidence is misplaced and based more on history than reality. Today, one-third of the world’s population lacks access to essential medicines; in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia this figure rises to one-half. Too often in the countries where MSF works, we cannot treat our patients because the medicines are too expensive or they are no longer produced. Sometimes, the only drugs we have are highly-toxic or ineffective, and nobody is looking for a better cure.

As a medical humanitarian organization, it is fundamentally unacceptable to MSF that access to essential medicines is increasingly impossible, particularly for the most common global infectious diseases. Since 1999, MSF has been campaigning internationally to find long-term, sustainable solutions to this crisis. The Campaign is pushing to lower the prices of existing medicines, to bring abandoned drugs back into production, to stimulate research and development for diseases that primarily affect the poor, and to overcome other barriers to access.

The 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), launched today by Transparency International (TI), points to a strong correlation between corruption and poverty, with a concentration of impoverished states at the bottom of the ranking.

http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/cpi_2006

Eco-Minds is a new youth program of Bayer and UNEP which encourages the youth to think of creative and practical uses of science and technology in an interdisciplinary way in order to address the challenge of Sustainable Development. While the primary focus of Eco-Minds is on scientific and technical innovations, the initiative also includes consideration of socio-economic and cultural factors at all stages.

Virtually all of the growth in the world s population for the foreseeable future will take place in the cities and towns of the developing world. Over the next twenty years, most developing countries will for the first time become more urban than rural. The benefits from urbanization cannot be overlooked, but the speed and sheer scale of this transformation present many challenges. A new cast of policy makers is emerging to take up the many responsibilities of urban governance as many national governments decentralize and devolve their functions, programs in poverty, health, education, and public services are increasingly being deposited in the hands of untested municipal and regional governments. Demographers have been surprisingly slow to devote attention to the implications of the urban transformation.

nap.edu

The Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI) and Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) announced the results of their first ever joint benchmark survey, “Sustainable Business & Strategy: Views From the Inside.”

“The key results of this survey of sustainability business professionals are that corporate social responsibility (CSR) has a high profile inside their companies, that 72% of the survey responders stated that their CEO publicly communicates their company’s commitment to CSR, 47% believe they have the resources needed to achieve their CSR goals and 94% expect environmental, health and safety (EHS) and CSR to have more impact on business strategy over the next five years,” said Robert Accarino, Global Director Environmental Affairs, Abbott, and Chair of GEMI’s Benchmarking Committee. “The survey also points to questions in the minds of these professionals that require further exploration like how effective sustainability reporting is, and how well companies are building sustainability into their overall brand footprint,” Accarino continued.

"The survey provides important, new information about the context in which sustainability professionals operate, and the growing momentum we see to connect a company’s corporate social responsibility efforts to overall business strategies," said Eric Olson, Vice President, Advisory Services at BSR. "Our work with GEMI provides an insider's view from professionals who are building stronger businesses by working for a more just and sustainable world," Olson continued.

The focus of the survey was on different aspects of EHS and CSR program management. The respondents, 54 sustainability professionals who are members of GEMI and/or BSR, came from a broad range of business sectors with consumer product companies representing the largest single business sector completing the survey (35%). Most respondents (89%) were from companies that were headquartered in North America. Annual sales of those companies participating in the survey ranged from $2 million to $95 billion, with an average (mean) of $21 billion. The majority of the respondents (77%) were from BSR member companies and almost half (46%) were GEMI companies. Almost one-quarter (23%) were both GEMI and BSR members.

Recharging your laptop computer, your cell phone and a variety of other gadgets may one day be as convenient as surfing the web--wirelessly.

Marin Soljacic, an assistant professor in MIT's Department of Physics and Research Laboratory of Electronics, will describe his and his MIT colleagues' research on that wireless future on Tuesday, Nov. 14 at the American Institute of Physics Industrial Physics Forum in San Francisco.

Like many of us, Soljacic (pronounced Soul-ya-CHEECH) often forgets to recharge his cell phone, and when it is about to die it emits an unpleasant noise. "Needless to say, this always happens in the middle of the night," he said. "So, one night, at 3 a.m., it occurred to me: Wouldn't it be great if this thing charged itself?" He began to wonder if any of the physics principles he knew of could turn into new ways of transmitting energy.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/wireless.html

Solar power can deliver electricity to more than 2 billion people, provide over 2 million jobs with an annual investment of 113 billion Euros by 2025, reveals the joint report, ‘SolarGeneration’, released by Greenpeace International and the European Photovoltaic Industry Association. The market report also explains that 350 million tonnes of CO2 emissions would be cut - the equivalent amount from 140 coal power stations and by 2040, solar electricity could provide over 16 percent of the global demand.

THIS newspaper was established in 1843 to take part in “a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress”. One of the chief ways in which intelligence presses forward is through innovation, which is now recognised as one of the most important contributors to economic growth. Innovation, in turn, depends on the creative individuals who dream up new ideas and turn them into reality.

The Economist recognises these talented people through our annual Innovation Awards, presented in seven fields: bioscience, computing and communications, energy and environment, social and economic innovation, business-process innovation, consumer products and a flexible “no boundaries” category. The awards were presented at a ceremony in London on November 9th by John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of The Economist. And the winners were:

• Bioscience: Marvin Caruthers, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Colorado at Boulder, for the development of automated DNA synthesis—in essence, the ability to “print out” arbitrary strands of genetic material. Dr Caruthers’s methods were licensed to Applied Biosystems, which has subsequently become one of the largest analytical and life-science instrument companies in the world. Used in research laboratories around the world, automated DNA synthesis has been essential for the advancement of such applications as chromosome mapping, genomic sequencing, and the study of interactions between DNA, RNA and proteins.

• Computing and communications: Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström of Skype, for the development of internet file-sharing and telephony using peer-to-peer technology. Messrs Friis and Zennström are famous for shaking up two industries with peer-to-peer software, which allows millions of computers to link up over the internet without the need for central co-ordination. KaZaA, launched in 2000, became the dominant means of sharing music and video files, despite attempts by the entertainment industry to shut it down. Skype, launched in 2003, lets users make free phone calls over the internet, forcing traditional telephone services to slash their prices. Skype was acquired by eBay in 2005.

• Energy and environment: Johannes Poulsen, former chief executive, Vestas Wind Systems, for the commercialisation of wind energy. In 1987 Mr Poulsen took the helm at Vestas, then a small, bankrupt Danish firm with 60 employees. By the time he retired in 2002, Vestas had 5,000 employees and a quarter of the world market for wind turbines. Under Mr Poulsen, Vestas greatly improved the efficiency of wind turbines, reducing the cost of electricity generation and making wind power more competitive with other power sources.

• No boundaries: Pierre Omidyar, founder and chairman of eBay, for the development of electronic marketplace technology and his promotion of access to markets as a tool for social change. Mr Omidyar wrote the original software for eBay in 1995, with the aim of creating an electronic marketplace accessible to any internet user. The business was profitable by 1996, and last year made a profit of $1.1 billion on revenues of $4.6 billion. People all over the world buy and sell items in over 45,000 categories. Some users make a living buying and selling on eBay. In 2005, Mr Omidyar and his wife Pam created the Omidyar Network, an investment group that promotes universal access to information, markets and opportunities.

• Social and economic innovation: Hernando de Soto, founder and president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy, for the promotion of property rights and economic development. Mr de Soto has long argued that bureaucracy and the lack of formal property rights are major causes of poverty in developing countries. Red tape and the lack of legal title to property, preventing its use as collateral, make it hard for the poor to build or expand businesses. While serving as economic adviser to the Peruvian government, Mr de Soto initiated a property-titling scheme which benefited 1.2m families and legitimised nearly 400,000 firms. Similar reforms have been implemented in El Salvador, Haiti, Tanzania, and Egypt. Mr de Soto has also championed the publication of league tables to shame governments into cutting red tape.

• Business-process innovation: Sam Pitroda, chief executive of WorldTel, for pioneering India’s communications revolution. In 1987 Mr Pitroda was asked by Rajiv Gandhi, the Indian prime minister, to help democratise access to telecommunications. His response was to deploy instantly-recognisable yellow telephone kiosks in every town and village. In the process, he helped to release the Indian telecoms industry from state control and opened it up to dozens of private companies, paving the way for India’s telecoms boom. Through WorldTel, he now promotes similar policies in other parts of the developing world.

• Consumer products: Nicolas Hayek, chairman of Swatch, for revitalising the Swiss watch industry. During the 1980s Switzerland’s legendary watch industry fell into decline, with exports falling by half within a decade as a result of Japanese competition. Mr Hayek’s response was to buy majority stakes in to watchmakers and merge them to create the Swatch Group. It went on to beat the Japanese at their own game, selling inexpensive plastic watches, creating the bestselling watch brand in history and becoming the largest watchmaker in the world, with a quarter of the market. Mr Hayek did not invent the Swatch, which was based on an existing design, but he saw the opportunity to turn it into a successful consumer product.

Un nuevo sitio en internet, www.pymeslatinas.org fue lanzado hoy por la Asociación Latinoamericana de Integración (ALADI) para apoyar a los micro, pequeños y medianos empresarios en la difusión de sus productos, servicios y la posibilidad de desarrollarse como distribuidores y representantes de empresas en la región.

A poco de estar operativo, este sitio que esta llamado a convertirse en un gran "mercado común virtual" en donde se faciliten los contactos entre productores y compradores, representantes y distribuidores de productos y servicios de la región. En el momento del lanzamiento, el portal ya cuenta con más de 700 productos y servicios registrados, de los 12 países miembros de la Asociación.

A diferencia de otros sitios, este portal es un servicio gratuito que brinda la ALADI y a través de un formulario puede ingresar sus datos en www.pymeslatinas.org para contactarse con clientes o proveedores del todo el mundo No es necesario estar registrado para poder hacer una búsqueda de empresas o de productos. De este modo, los empresarios pueden acceder fácilmente a las oportunidades que ofrece la integración regional.

El sitio también ofrece la posibilidad de acceder a un calendario regional de ferias y eventos, noticias de temas que interesan a las pymes y un útil listado de entidades oficiales y empresariales que apoyan a las pymes en la región.

En los países miembros de la Asociación más del 90% de las empresas son micro, pequeñas y medianas, destacándose por la importante contribución que realizan al crecimiento del producto y al empleo. Se estima que las MiPYMES producen entre el 30% y el 60% -dependiendo del país- de los bienes y servicios y proveen alrededor de 3 de cada 4 puestos de trabajo en los países miembros de la ALADI.

Debido a ello, la ALADI se ha propuesto generar nuevas herramientas que permitan ampliar las oportunidades para este sector de empresarios. En este marco se inscribe el lanzamiento del portal pymeslatinas.

Tomorrow’s Value, SustainAbility’s fourth international benchmark of corporate sustainability reporting, has once again been developed in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Standard & Poor's. This year we introduce a revised methodology, developed in close consultation with experts and leading corporate reporters, and — in line with our sense that the focus also needs to shift beyond disclosure and reporting to communication — we have adopted a portfolio approach. Tomorrow’s Value is the flagship document in a suite of publications exploring wider aspects of reporting, including communication with financial analysts and the wider innovation agenda.

The field is currently extremely dynamic, with new entrants making up half of the 50 Leaders. Strikingly, half of the Leading 50 companies are complete newcomers, including four entrants from non-OECD countries. The pressures driving improved sustainability reporting continue to grow, with the Global Reporting Initiative’s recently launched G3 guidelines providing renewed impetus in terms of international standardisation. In parallel, the slow, grudging awakening of financial markets is being accelerated by growing concerns around climate change.

Tomorrow’s Value asks the question: How far has the value lightbulb switched on in corporate brains and boardrooms?
On current evidence, the answer is that the links between the evolving sustainability agenda and wider market opportunities
are now better understood — with a small number of companies reporting the relationship with value in increasingly interesting ways. Partly as a result, some parts of the financial community are gearing up their use of non-financial, extra-financial and/or sustainability disclosures to better understand emerging environmental, social and governance risks. Nonetheless, our expert panel concluded that most companies are still missing an important opportunity to communicate with financial analysts and institutions.

Steve Wozniak tells the tale of Apple’s early years with such illuminating details and brio that engineers (and ordinary mortals) will feel they’d actually been on the scene. While lots of books recount this story, Wozniak says many of them “got it wrong.” So he decided to set down his own version, by book and lecture.

A ham radio licensee in 6th grade, Wozniak envisioned becoming an engineer, building “radios, TVs or guidance systems.” It was a time when one “couldn’t hope to see a computer, and never own one because it cost as much as a house.”

Wozniak put himself through U.C. Berkeley by working in electronics firms, including Hewlett Packard. All the while he was designing primitive computers. Then came the fateful day when he met Steve Jobs, with whom he had an immediate affinity. “A lot of my life is driven by how you should live, your goals and values. A lot came from the pop music of the day, and we had similar tastes, like Bob Dylan.” Both Wozniak and Jobs were fascinated by the early video games, like Pong, which had simple displays and controls. Wozniak stumbled on to the ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet, and was inspired by the idea of typing and seeing words appear on a video screen. ‘I said, Wow, I can design my own computer and build it almost for free.”

Wozniak devised a microprocessor with some memory and created the first “local computer.” Jobs set out to sell the invention. The Apple 1 was born, and in record time, they had an order for 100 computers, at $666.66 each. The famous garage was a staging area where Wozniak tested the machines for defects. He notes about this time, “You can do things amazingly fast when you don’t have any lawyers.”

In 1977, Wozniak’s new and improved Apple 2 added basic programming language, as well as color and graphics, sound and paddles. This was the machine that convinced the world that computers didn’t just belong in big companies, but in everyone’s homes. “It was the biggest eureka moment of my life,” Wozniak says, when he realized that with software on a computer “you could do in half an hour what would take you a lifetime in hardware.” Whether with games, spreadsheet calculations or recipes, his computer had seized the imagination of an entire nation.

http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/400/

Un refrán popular dice que el Perú es un mendigo sentado en un banco de oro. Más allá del cariz irónico que a veces toma esa frase, lo cierto es que hay muchos peruanos que estamos sentados. Con una tasa de desempleo que bordea el 10%, el tema de un trabajo que permita cubrir la canasta básica familiar, de casi 350 dólares mensuales, es un tema importante en cada elección democrática y en toda conversación familiar.

Sin embargo, las políticas en materia laboral durante los últimos años han profundizado una situación incierta para muchos trabajadores y sindicatos. Las empresas están respaldadas por un marco legal que presupone un gasto excesivo en el pago de beneficios sociales, calificados de “sobrecargas laborales”.

En este escenario, compartido con varios países de la región, en el que la sociedad de consumo se presenta como uno de los principales motores de las economías emergentes de los países latinoamericanos, nacen, viven y sobreviven las microempresas, iniciativas del capitalismo popular.

En el Perú las empresas de este tipo están diferenciadas por el número de trabajadores y la facturación anual por ganancias. Así tenemos microempresas, que según la Ley 28015 deben estar constituidas por un máximo de 10 trabajadores y no exceder los 155 mil dólares, aproximadamente, de ventas anuales. La pequeña empresa debe tener un máximo de 50 trabajadores y no debe exceder, en ventas anuales, los 870 mil dólares. Este tipo de unidades económicas representan el 98.56% de las empresas formales en el país, contribuyen con el 42% de la producción nacional y emplean el 88% de trabajadores del sector privado.

A pesar de su obvia importancia para la vida económica del Perú, ser pequeño o microempresario no es nada fácil. Si bien las Pequeñas y Microempresas (PYME) gozan de beneficios tributarios a través de la exoneración de algunos impuestos como el general a las ventas (19%), no es fácil hacer empresa. Uno de los primeros obstáculos a vencer es el tiempo administrativo que le toma a una persona o grupo de personas, registrar una empresa.

Mientras en Chile el tiempo promedio que toma el expediente de una empresa para ser registrado es de 25 días, en el Perú es de 60 a 90 días. Además, no existe una tasa única para la obtención de licencias de funcionamiento de las municipalidades del país, es decir que tanto el costo de funcionamiento como los requisitos solicitados, varían según el municipio.

Poca educación tributaria y estas trabas administrativas pueden ser el motivo de la siguiente situación: en el Perú funcionan más de 2.5 millones de PYME de las cuales sólo 648,147 empresas (26%) son formales. Esto representa un gran problema no sólo por la recaudación que el Estado no realiza, sino también porque muchas de las empresas informales generan una mala imagen para las PYME en cuanto a calidad, seriedad y eficiencia.

Exigencias descabidas eliminan PYMES

Otro de los beneficios de las PYME es que el 40% del presupuesto destinado a compras y adquisiciones de cada una de las entidades públicas debe ser ejecutado a través de servicios y productos brindados por estas empresas. Sin embargo, como menciona Percy Stigler, consultor del Consejo de Organizaciones de la Micro, Pequeña y Mediana Empresa del Perú (COMPYMEP) “a veces una palabra te saca del mercado”.

El problema es que muchos concursos para otorgar licitaciones tienen requisitos - como las garantías financieras – que en caso de incumplimiento descalifican a las micro y pequeñas empresas. Lo mismo sucede con los procesos industriales exigidos, algunos de los cuales implican el uso de maquinaria muy costosa. A pesar de no incidir de manera considerable en el resultado cualitativo del producto, esas exigencias eliminan tácitamente a la mayoría de las PYMES. Por ejemplo, si en una licitación para adquirir calzado se exige el vulcanizado, que implica el uso de maquinaria costosa, todas las PYME que usan el cosido y pegado, sin que ello signifique una menor calidad del producto, están descalificadas.

Así mismo, es importante considerar que una de las herramientas vitales para estas empresas es el crédito financiero. A pesar de que los microempresarios son algunos de los mejores pagadores del sistema, es muy difícil acceder a él por requisitos como el patrimonio, la experiencia en el rubro o las garantías reales.

El gobierno actual parece haber apuntado a las PYME como el eje de su política de fomento del empleo y de crecimiento económico sostenido. Siendo Hernando De Soto, teórico del capitalismo popular, uno de los colaboradores del gobierno de Alan García es importante observar con cuidado lo que ocurrirá con los mecanismos legales y de promoción en este sector económico. Ser sujeto de crédito ha sido para De Soto uno de los pilares del desarrollo económico y social de las economías emergentes.

En ese sentido, el Banco de la Nación ha anunciado la disponibilidad de 200 millones de soles (60 millones de dólares aproximadamente) para otorgar créditos a pequeñas y microempresas. Asimismo, el Centro de Promoción de la Pequeña y Micro Empresa (PROMPYME), creado el 2003 para apoyar el incremento de la competitividad de estas empresas, está apuntalando su trabajo en la articulación de los mercados tanto nacionales como extranjeros y ahí parece haber una veta interesante. Dado que la exportación implica un mayor volumen de producción, ésta promueve la asociación entre micro y pequeñas empresas, y ello supone la necesidad de estar formalizadas.

Se debe subrayar el hecho de que el tema de las PYME en el Perú se encuentra bajo la dirección del Ministerio de Trabajo, lo cual indica cuál es el enfoque que se le da al tema. Más aún si tenemos en cuenta que el 77% de la Población Económicamente Activa (PEA) del país trabaja en microempresas.

Si las cosas van bien y las iniciativas del gobierno se ejecutan de manera eficiente y con la regulación necesaria, tal vez los peruanos podamos dejar el banco de oro por un buen rato y trabajemos compitiendo con las empresas más grandes en esto que se ha llamado economía de mercado.

08.11.06 | Por Javier Baca, exclusivo para Mosaico Social

Open to all qualified entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and around the world, we are looking for technologies and services that harness the power and ubiquity of mobile devices – that create new business models, and the systems that will accelerate mobile work-styles and the mobile lifestyle.

This competition offers a prize that no one else can: the winning entrepreneurs will be invited to visit Nokia’s world-famous labs to have an opportunity to develop and test their innovations. Winners will also be profiled by Red Herring and all entrants will get valuable exposure in front of a panel of experienced VCs and investors.

Competition entry deadline
December 10, 2006

http://www.makeweb2mobile.org/

Young women and men are among the world’s greatest assets. They bring energy, talent and creativity to economies and create the foundations for future development. But today’s youth also represent a group with serious vulnerabilities in the world of work. In recent years slowing global employment growth and increasing unemployment, underemployment and disillusionment have hit young people the hardest. As a result, today’s youth are faced with a growing deficit of decent work opportunities and high levels of economic and social uncertainty.

This report adds to growing evidence of a global situation in which young people face increasing difficulties when entering the labour force. One of the principal findings of the report is that a global deficit of decent work opportunities has resulted in a situation in which one out of three youth in the world is either seeking but unable to find work (the unemployed), has given up on the job search entirely (the discouraged) or is working but still living below the US$2 a day poverty line (the working poor). This second version of the GET Youth (see also GET Youth 2004) updates the key world and regional youth labour market indicators, but offers original research as well, including a careful estimation of the number and share of youth who work but are living in households of less than US$1 or 2 a day (the so-called youth working poor). The working poor youth estimate can serve as a proxy for income-related underemployment and therefore fits nicely within the framework presented in the report for identifying youth who are most at risk to suffering from degrees of exclusion from decent work and therefore a framework for identifying whom would benefit most from targeted interventions.

Without the right foothold from which to start out right in the labour market, young people are less able to make choices that will improve their own job prospects and those of their future dependents. This, in turn, perpetuates the cycle of insufficient education, low-productivity employment and working poverty from one generation to the next. The report, therefore, adds urgency to the UN call for development of strategies aimed to give young people a chance to make the most of their productive potential through decent employment.

On October 18, 2006 civil society organizations from 59 countries around the world will unveil the Open Budget Index. This is the first index to rate countries on how open their budget books are to their citizens. It is intended to provide citizens, legislators, and civil society advocates with the comprehensive and practical information needed to gauge a government’s commitment to budget transparency and accountability. Armed with this kind of information, lenders, development advocates, and aid organizations can identify meaningful budget reforms needed in specific countries to combat corruption and strengthen basic services to improve people's lives.

http://www.openbudgetindex.org/

El Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores informa que la Oficina de Patentes del Estado de Israel ha emitido recientemente, a favor del Estado Peruano, el Certificado de Registro Nº 865 a la denominación de origen Pisco.

Dicho registro le otorga al Perú derechos exclusivos sobre la denominación de origen en territorio israelí, lo que evidencia para este producto de bandera peruano, inmejorables posibilidades de colocación en ese sofisticado mercado.

Del mismo modo, este reconocimiento representa un valioso patrocinio y apoyo a las gestiones que ha emprendido el Perú en ese país y que viene realizando constantemente para obtener y garantizar la total protección del Pisco en el mundo, permitiendo lograr de este modo su posicionamiento internacional.

Este registro se adiciona a los reconocimientos ya otorgados al Perú con carácter de exclusividad por los países Andinos, Centroamericanos, Caribeños y los países miembros del Arreglo de Lisboa –sobre la Protección de las Denominaciones de Origen y su Registro Internacional– entre los que podemos destacar a Francia, República Checa, Italia, Hungría, Portugal y Eslovaquia.