Two of Latin America’s biggest airlines are joining forces.

Avianca, the flag carrier of Colombia, and GOL, the third-largest airline in Brazil, will come together under a new holding company called Abra Group Limited, which will own both airlines.

Each airline will maintain its own brand and continue to operate separately. When the deal closes, expected in the second half of this year, Abra Group will operate similarly to the large airline holding company in Europe –  International Airlines Group (IAG), which owns British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and other smaller airlines.

Abra will also own low-cost carriers Viva Colombia and Viva Peru, which recently announced plans to join Avianca, while keeping operations independent.

Even though these airlines will all remain independent, there may be some awkward uncertainties for two major U.S. airlines: American and United.

By Ethan Klapper via The Points Guy.

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ATLANTA – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has put more than $160 million in financial assistance into the hands of residents of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to help them recover from the damages caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida. As of Oct. 13, the SBA had approved 3,319 loans for a total of $160,671,100. “Hurricane Ida cut a wide swath of damage, and SBA’s mission-driven team is working hard to help affected small businesses and residents with their recoveries,” said Kem Fleming, Director of the SBA’s Field Operations Center East. “We’re committed to providing federal disaster loans swiftly and efficiently, with a customer-centric approach to help businesses and communities recover and rebuild.”

Businesses, homeowners, renters and private nonprofit organizations in 28 primary counties in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are eligible to apply for physical disaster loans from the SBA. Those include the New York counties of Bronx, Kings, Nassau, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester; the New Jersey counties of Bergen, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Union and Warren; and the Pennsylvania counties of Bedford, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Northampton, Philadelphia, and York.

Small businesses and most private nonprofit organizations in counties adjacent to the primary counties are eligible to apply only for SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loans.

To be considered for all forms of disaster assistance, applicants should register online at DisasterAssistance.gov or download the FEMA mobile app. If online or mobile access is unavailable, applicants should call the FEMA toll-free helpline at 800-621-3362. Those who use 711-Relay or Video Relay Services should call 800-621-3362.

Businesses and individuals should then complete and return an SBA disaster loan application by visiting DisasterLoanAssistance.sba.gov. They can also obtain individual assistance at one of the recovery centers established in all three states. Locations and hours can be obtained here:

NY Ida Recovery Centers

NJ Ida Recovery Centers

PA Ida Recovery Centers

Businesses and individuals can ask questions, obtain loan applications or other information by calling the SBA’s Customer Service Center at 1-800-659-2955 (1-800-877-8339 for the deaf and hard-of hearing) or emailing DisasterCustomerService@sba.gov.

Loan applications can also be downloaded at sba.gov/disaster.

Completed applications should be mailed to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort Worth, TX 76155.

About the U.S. Small Business Administration The U.S. Small Business Administration makes the American dream of business ownership a reality. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow or expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations.

To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.

The United States will reopen in November to air travelers from 33 countries including China, India, Brazil and most of Europe who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the White House said on Monday, easing tough pandemic-related restrictions that started early last year.

The decision, announced by White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients, marked an abrupt shift for President Joe Biden’s administration, which said last week it was not the right time to lift any restrictions amid rising COVID-19 cases.

The United States had lagged many other countries in lifting such restrictions, and allies welcomed the move. The U.S. restrictions have barred travelers from most of the world including tens of thousands of foreign nationals with relatives or business links in the United States.

The United States will admit fully vaccinated air travelers from the 26 so-called Schengen countries in Europe including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Greece, as well as Britain, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil. The unprecedented U.S. restrictions have barred non-U.S. citizens who were in those countries within the past 14 days.

By David Shepardson and Andrea Shalal via Reuters.

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Businesswoman is the only Brazilian among the 100 names of 2021 elected by the American magazine

Businesswoman Luiza Helena Trajano, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Magazine Luiza, was elected by the American magazine Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She is the only Brazilian on the 2021 list.

Some names on the list are British Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka, American gymnast Simone Biles, US President Joe Biden, and his vice Kamala Harris, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Russian opponent Alexei Navalni, singers Britney Spears and Billie Eilish, and Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Translated by Kiratiana Freelon via Folha de São Paulo.

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On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce, Inc., we regretfully inform you of the passing, on March 19, 2020 at the age of 99, of Sheun Ming Ling, President Emeritus of the Board of Directors of Évora S.A. and Founder of Instituto Ling, a longtime and valued partner of the Chamber.

With no formal education and few resources, Mr. Ling migrated from China to Brazil in 1951.  Shortly thereafter, he set off on an entrepreneurial journey that jumpstarted Brazil’s soy industry, creating Évora S.A.  In 1995, Mr. Ling and his wife, Lydia Wong Ling, founded Instituto Ling, a philanthropic entity that has provided 772 students, many of whom are Person of the Year Fellows, with educational scholarships.

Mr. Ling is survived by Lydia, to whom he was married for 66 years, four children, and nine grandchildren.  More information on Sheun Ming Ling’s great life and career can be found here.

No dia 4 de novembro acontecerá em São Paulo, o lançamento do livro “Entendendo a Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil” de Cooordenação e Coautoria de Felipe Neves.

Felipe é Fellow do nosso POY Fellowship Program e Presidente e Fundador do Projeto Constituição na Escola. O objetivo do Projeto, através das aulas sobre a Constituição Federal Brasileira, é expandir a noção cívica dos estudantes, ensinando-lhes sobre seus direitos e deveres constitucionais, para que tenham uma base educacional sólida para compreender a importância de ser um cidadão consciente.

Saiba mais aqui

Congratulations to Bruno Yoshimura and the ONEVC team for this important achievement. Bruno is a fellow of our POY Fellowship Program and a member of our Young Professionals Committee. 

**

In recent years, Brazil’s startup scene has exploded as investor interest in Latin America as a whole has increased. And ONEVC, a cross-border fund dedicated to investing in U.S. and Latin American startups, is ideally poised to capitalize on that.

The firm, with offices in São Paulo and San Francisco, has closed its first fund, ONEVC FUND I LP, Crunchbase News has learned exclusively.

The firm has $30 million under management, along with $8 million to invest in “special opportunities” (more about those later). Since it was formed in November 2017, ONEVC has already seen two portfolio companies become unicorns and another (San Francisco-based HeyDoctor) exit.

By Mary Ann Azevedo via Crunchbase News

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The veteran emerging-market investor Mark Mobius said he plans to add to his Brazil holdings, lauding the first few months of President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration even as other investors have shown skepticism.

Mobius, who left Franklin Templeton Investments in 2018 to set up Mobius Capital Partners, said the president’s performance has been “terrific” as he works to push through a pension overhaul that analysts see as key to revitalizing Brazil’s economy. He expects the bill to pass this year and predicted more money will flow into Brazil as the agenda takes hold.

By Vinicius Andrade via Bloomberg

Joint statement from the American Museum of Natural History and the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce:

“With mutual respect for our work and goals of our individual organizations, we have jointly agreed that the American Museum of Natural History is not the optimal location for the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce Gala Dinner. This traditional event will go forward at another location on the original date and time.”

Brazil’s tourism profile among Americans reached unparalleled heights in the earlier half of this decade when the South American nation hosted back-to-back international sports tournaments: the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

One million foreign tourists visited Brazil during the World Cup, according to officials at Embratur, the Brazil Tourist Board. More than 60 percent were visiting for the first time and U.S. and Canadian residents bought more than 200,000 match tickets, trailing only Brazilian purchases, said FIFA. Meanwhile, flights to Brazil increased by 289 percent between in the weeks prior to the 2016 Rio Olympics compared with the same period in 2015.

In the years since the country’s tourism officials have followed up on those high-profile events with a program of measures designed to ease American and Canadian travel to the country, even as the government struggled with economic and political unrest.

By Brian Major via Travel Pulse

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Program provides incentives for automakers that prioritize the use of biofuels

Brazil´s President Michel Temer sanctioned this Monday, December 10, 2018, Law 13755, creating ROTA2030, a program that establishes incentives to increase efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in transportation, and gives a direction of future investments in research and new technologies for the automobile industry in Brazil. The measure was published at the Federal Official Gazette this Tuesday, December 11th.

ROTA 2030 was a program widely discussed by all the actors involved in the production and commercialization of cars and fuels in Brazil, with the participation of civil society representatives and a wide representation of Parliamentarians from the two houses of Congress.

ROTA 2030 is considered the Siamese brother of RENOVABIO, since it establishes incentives for the increase of efficiency in the technology used by vehicles, just as RenovaBio promotes the energetic-environmental efficiency in the production of biofuels.

One of the most important elements of ROTA 2030 was the approval of the Parliamentary Amendment authored by Deputy Arnaldo Jardim, approved in the form of Paragraph 4o. of Article 2 of the legislation, which reads as follows:

Paragraph 4. Hybrid vehicles equipped with an engine that alternately or simultaneously uses gasoline and ethanol (flexible fuel engine) shall have a reduction of at least three percentage points in the rate of IPI (industrial products tax) in relation to conventional vehicles of similar class and category, equipped with the same type of engine.

According to Congressman Arnaldo Jardim, the device is a way of recognizing the externalities of ethanol, which is a fuel that makes the difference, as it generates income, employment, is renewable and still fights greenhouse gases.

On Thursday, in a ceremony at the Presidential Palace, President Michel Temer, Ministers and members of the Parliament will celebrate the enactment of the Law, and Toyota will announce the installation of the first worldwide assembly line of hybrid vehicles with flex technology, capable of using ethanol fuel.

Below is the full text of Law 13755, published in the Official Gazette of December 11th, 2018.

DATAGRO, December 11, 2018.

LEI NO 13.755, DE 10 DE DEZEMBRO DE 2018

Read full article on portal.datagro.com