Rio de Janeiro._ Varig is Latin America’s largest airline and it counts today on a fleet of 93 aircraft averaging 435 flights a day and carrying over 11 million passengers to 18 different countries every year. The company, founded on May 7, 1927 in Porto Alegre, is an enterprise from the Ruben Berta Foundation. In conjunction with Rio Sul & Nordeste –a group holding a 43% grip of the market- Varig operates Brazil’s largest and most complete line network covering 112 cities.

Santo Domingo._ Investments for up to $5,592,000 will be conducted by ten enterprises that recently got the green light to set up shop in some of the country’s industrial parks under previous authorization from the National Council of Exporting Free Trade Zones. Council Director Janet Dominguez explained that the new enterprises will generate 1,391 new jobs and revenues in hard currency for $7.2 million.

Havana_ Habanos S.A. Corp., a joint-ventured marketer run by Spanish and Cuban combined capital, closed its operations last year with as many as $260 million in revenues, a 30% increase as compared to the year 2000. Corporation execs indicated that, ruling out the United States, Cuban hand-rolled cigars picked up over 70% of the world market’s quota.

San Jose._ The Costa Rican economy won’t get a dramatic new lease on life this year as the Gross National Product (GNP) will barely grow a meager 1.3%, reportedly forecast the Economic and Financial Advisors enterprise (CEFSA). The available GNP will grow just 1.9% while the country’s population increases at a 2.3% annual rate. This means Costa Ricans earn less revenues, CEFSA indicated.

Kingston._ Despite the woes in the travel business, Air Jamaica is doing just fine and business is better than originally anticipated, its marketing executive Allen Chastanet said. Chastanet believes the carrier will exceed budget for both January and February this year, while advance bookings for March, April, May and June look extremely promising. "The critical question is when do we stop the level of discounting that we are having to do in order to resuscitate this business."

Santo Domingo._ Several costly projects are going up in Santiago de los Caballeros, the Dominican Republic´s second largest city. In addition to the new airport, a mega hospital and a large deluxe hotel are in advanced stages of construction. Together the projects amount to over US$58.17 millions. The Hospital Metropolitano de Santiago is luring Dominican health practitioners in the United States to come home to practice. The center promises to offer the most sophisticated medical services.