Chilanga in the Treasury. (News Business).

In what is the highest-ranking appointment of a Hispanic during the Bush administration, Mexico City-born Rosario Mann was sworn in as Treasurer of the United States on Aug. 16. Although not the first Hispanic to occupy the position, 43-year-old Mann becomes the first person born outside the United States to do so.

Among various other government posts, Marin is the former mayor of Huntington Park, California and the, first receptor by popular vote of the Excellence in Public Service Award, as well as the United Nation's Rose Fitzgerald prize in 1995 for her efforts in promoting public awareness and services for the disabled.

GROWTH POLEMICS--AGAIN!

Economic growth forecasts for the year continue to worsen, amid torrents of accusations, government contradictions, some premature optimism and alarmist forecasts. With many analysts now predicting gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the year of around 0.5-1%, finger-pointing between government, political opposition, and the private sector has grown ugly.

Moreover, the recent plunge in manufacturing and construction industries has led to a surge of comparisons between the current economic rut with the crisis-ridden sexenios of former Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) governments.

But in contrast to most of Mexico's crises over the last 30 years that were caused primarily by economic mismanagement, present-day woes are different, and can be largely attributed to the U.S. economic deceleration, which has stunted the nation's export sector.

"It's the first time that the Mexican economy is going with the global economic cycle. In previous sexenios, when we were submerged in a brutal crisis as in 1995, other economies were growing," said Jorge Espina, president of the nation's employer's confederation (Coparmex), to local press.

One partial solution to the current downward plunge is seen by many to be the satisfactory approval by Congress of the upcoming fiscal reform. But while this would certainly enable healthier public finances, and thus greater investment capabilities, the effect would be limited, Espina argued.

However, the government, as well various analysts and some private-sector representatives such as Raul Picard, president of Canacintra, Mexico's manufacturer's association, have been quick to place some of the blame on Congressional efforts to obstruct the government's reform initiatives in areas such as labor, energy, taxes, rural development and indigenous rights.

Admittedly, opposition parties have largely played down the necessity of reform and have focused their criticism on the structural factors that make the economy so highly dependent on U.S. consumers, and on demands for higher public spending. But ironically, neither of these are attainable without the reforms to generate more tax revenues and better incentives for foreign investment.

PRIORITIES, PRIORITIES

Economic growth may have stagnated and budgets may have been slashed, but that hasn't put a damper on funding for government advertising, which is some 71% higher than that of the administration of former President Ernesto Zedillo, a Mexico City daily reported.

While social spending in most areas has suffered under the slowdown, almost 2.8 billion pesos has been allocated to public-sector publicity by June, compared to the estimated 1.2 billion pesos forked out during the same period in 2000 by former President Zedillo.

To make matters worse, local press has accused President Vicente Fox of failing to report his administration's publicity expenses to Congress in either one of his quarterly budget reports, which is now obligatory by law.

STAR WARS

The Communications and Transport Secretariat's (SCT's) granting in mid-August of four satellite concessions allowing local and foreign companies to operate in Mexico via U.S.-based orbit positions remains mired in legal conflict.

In a somewhat contradictory move, the nation's minority state-owned satellite company (Satmex) has threatened legal action against the terms of the concessions, arguing that local aperture to U.S. competitors would be both unfair and detrimental to Satmex's own decade-long satellite development efforts.

Which is hardly convincing, given that Satmex was actually the first operator to request permission to operate in Mexico through signals from foreign satellites. Indeed, local press has suggested that a more likely motive lies in Satmex's grim financial condition, which hampers its ability to compete and expand its operations.

Money problems have plagued the company since its 75% buyout by Corporativo Satelites (CS) in 1997. For the deal, CS took on debt to foot most of the hefty US$656 million bill, which was subsequently absorbed by Satmex to repay. In fact, Satmex still owes the SCT US$125 million from the deal.

The SCT has argued the need to fulfill a 1995 reciprocity agreement with the United States, of which Satmex was the first beneficiary, and the delay of which would hurt the market.

All four concessions, awarded to Pegaso (PanAmSat), GE American, Televisa (Telesistema Mexicano) and Satmex have been approved by Mexico's anti-trust regulator, CFC.

Mexico's $-men

A recent edition of Forbes magazine reported that Mexico's wealthiest
individuals are:

Name                       Company            $

1) Carlos Slim             Telmex-Carso       US$10.8 billion
2) Emilio Azcarraga Jean   Televisa           US$3 billion
3) Ricardo Salinas Pliego  TV Azteca-Elektra  US$3 billion
4) Lorenzo Zambrano        Cemex              US$2.9 billion
5) Eugenio Garza Laguera   Femsa              US$2.5 billion