por admin » Mar Sep 06, 2011 2:26 pm
CEOs de las companias mas grandes hacen sugerencias para la creacion de empleos, ellos dicen que apoyarian la renovacion de infraestructura vieja, financiado en parte con fondos privados como una manera de crear empleos y hacer a US un pais mas competitivo.
Las corporaciones piden menores impuestos ya que US tiene los impuestos mas altos en el mundo, piden menos regulacion.
El WSJ realizo esta entrevista a 100 CEOs.
El de Alcoa dijo que la confianza es como el aire que necesita la economia para crecer y desarrollarse. Necesitamos una politicapositiva, que mire all futuro por parte del presidente y los lideres de los negocios para enfrentar el verdadero reto: mejorar la competitividad de US para que crezca con innovacion.
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CEOs Call for Less Regulation, Better Infrastructure
By ALAN MURRAY
Chief executives of some of the world's largest companies would support a U.S. effort to update aging infrastructure, financed in part by private money, as a way to create jobs and make U.S. business more competitive.
Top row: Renault-Nissan's Carlos Ghosn, left, and Lenovo's Yang Yuanqing. Bottom row: Westpac's Gail Kelly, left, and Nasdaq-OMX's Bob Griefeld.
."I travel the world on a regular basis, and U.S. infrastructure is simply not competitive," says Tom Albanese, CEO of Rio Tinto Group, the global mining company. "We are living off the capital of 50 years ago. If the government can't fix our infrastructure crisis, [it should] allow private capital to be employed."
Marcelo Claure, chief executive of Brightstar Corp., the telecommunications-services company, agrees: "Upgrading our subpar infrastructure in the U.S., and even considering options like privatizing infrastructure if needed for funding purposes...would be a good place to start delivering meaningful jobs in the U.S."
Dominic Barton, managing director of McKinsey & Co., said pension funds, asset managers, sovereign wealth funds and private-equity firms are all prepared to invest in infrastructure projects, and estimates they could contribute "$250 billion to $500 billion of equity capital over the next three years."
The CEO suggestions come in response to a request from The Wall Street Journal to members of its CEO Council—a group of roughly 100 global chief executives who meet annually to deliberate on public-policy issues—asking their suggestions for a global growth agenda. Thirty-five of them responded. The Journal's request preceded the announcement of the president's plan to speak about jobs before a joint session of Congress on Thursday.
Many of their suggestions are familiar. The CEOs want lower corporate taxes in the U.S., which has among the highest tax corporate tax rates in the world, and a moratorium or a rollback of business regulation.
"The government needs to be a better partner with the business world," said Magellan Health Services CEO Rene Lerer, echoing a sentiment expressed by many.
Yet the CEOs also exhibited a practical streak that is often absent from the Washington debate, and a willingness to embrace compromise. Mr. Albanese, for instance, wrote that on the budget deficit, "both political parties are right, and wrong. The government needs to increase revenue and reduce costs [including entitlements and military spending]." And Terry Marks, president and chief executive of The Pantry Inc., which operates convenience stores that sell gasoline, even suggested an increase in the gas tax "to invest in transportation infrastructure."
"We have to confront reality," wrote Roger Wood, chief executive of Dana Holdings Inc., the auto-parts company. "Political infighting and seemingly disparate objectives...are keeping the U.S. from finding real solutions to real problems."
The members of the CEO Council, which includes global companies some of which are domiciled abroad, generally agreed that indebted U.S. consumers can no longer drive economic growth in the U.S., and impetus will need to come from developing countries. As a result, they urged the U.S. to embrace global free trade, and make changes that will encourage the growth of export industries here. Many of their recommendations focused on developing human capital as the key to global competitiveness.
"Create more charter schools and teaching jobs for young graduates," wrote Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer. "Train more engineers and German-quality skilled labor." Several also called for reform of the immigration system, to allow more skilled professionals to live and work in the U.S.
Encouraging innovation in the U.S. was also a common theme.
Klaus Kleinfeld, chairman and CEO of Alcoa Inc. called on the U.S. to "reignite innovation" by creating regional alliances that join local governments, universities and investors to spark new business creation, and to invest in "research and development clusters" in areas like clean energy and life sciences. He and others also recommended an overhaul of the patent system, to reduce backlogs and address inefficiencies and the growing problem of "patent trolls."
Several of the CEOs also counseled patience. Deleveraging, they pointed out, takes time. "Slowdowns are to be expected after the rapid pace of growth in the world's economies over the past couple of decades, and businesses should take advantage of the time to re-focus on the basics and prepare for the resumption of growth," wrote Jack Ma, CEO of the Alibaba Group, the Chinese Internet company. "It's like Tai Chi [the Chinese martial art]—sometimes you need to go slow in order to go fast again."
Below are excerpts of the CEOs responses:
Klaus Kleinfeld, CEO, Alcoa Inc.:
"Confidence is like the air the economy needs to grow and thrive. We need a positive, forward-leaning message from the president—and business leaders—aimed at the real challenge: improving American competitiveness and fostering growth and innovation."
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes
.Jeff Bewkes, CEO, Time Warner Inc.:
"Global trade is essential to America's continued success and prosperity, and one way to encourage a vibrant marketplace is to protect copyrights, patents and trademarks vigorously, and encourage our trading partners to do the same. Intellectual property forms the foundation of virtually every industry—automotive, medical, energy, fashion, electronics, biotech and green technologies, and , yes, media and entertainment. Congress should work to eliminate roadblocks that U.S. businesses face in reaching critical overseas customers by adopting IP-friendly trade policies...and policing digital theft."
Nasdaq OMX CEO "Bob" Greifeld
.Bob Greifeld, CEO, Nasdaq-OMX:
"To be the best, U.S. companies need the ability to recruit the best workers. Global competition means global access to human capital. NASDAQ supports comprehensive highly skilled immigration reform. We must increase the number of H-1B visas available and reform the employment-based green card process."
Brent Saunders, CEO, Bausch & Lomb Inc.:
"Institute a lower corporate tax rate to encourage domestic investment including incentives to invest capital and conduct research in the United States. The U.S. corporate tax rate is on average ten percentage points higher than other world economies, which is a key factor in driving corporate investment overseas."
Jack Ma, CEO, Alibaba Group:
"Put your trust in young people and in small businesses. Young people will bring the new ideas an innovations that will create a brighter future. Small businesses are the backbones of the world's economies in terms of employment, tax base and overall contribution to society, and in some cases they are tomorrow's big companies."
Terry Marks, CEO, The Pantry Inc.:
"Develop a thoughtful, serious long range energy policy that contemplates more than battery powered cars and agri-fuels. Raise the gas tax and invest in transportation infrastructure."
Tom Glocer, CEO, Thomson Reuters:
"Create more charter schools and teaching jobs for young graduates. Train more engineers and German-quality skilled labor."
Steve MacMillan, CEO, Stryker Corp.:
"Balanced, reduced regulation. The pendulum has simply shifted too far, and many of our most innovative industries—health care, energy and finance—are all currently stymied by the amount of new regulations, further enhancing uncertainty and adding complexity."
Rene Lerer, M.D., CEO, Magellan Health Services:
"The government needs to be a better partner with the business world. There needs to be a concerted effort to create jobs throughout the country through a governmental-private partnership. The corporate community needs predictability and support. If we can move forward with the philosophy of "no surprises" with clear and predictable guidelines and support that would go a long way."
Tom Quinlan, CEO, RR Donnelley & Sons Co.:
"Allow for the repatriation of cash at a significantly reduced tax rate, with the constraint that within twelve months of that cash repatriation, dollar for dollar must have been used for capital expenditures."
Roger Wood, president and CEO, Dana Holding Corp.:
"Political stability—While we thankfully are not in a civil unrest situation, the political infighting and seemingly disparate objectives (winning election positioning versus finding a real compromised solution for economic growth) are keeping the U.S. from finding real solutions to real problems."
James Turley, chairman and CEO, Ernst & Young:
"Remove governmental regulatory policy uncertainty through 2013 by halting initiation or implementation of regulations when such regulations could harm job or economic growth."
Marcelo Claure, chairman and CEO, Brightstar:
"Upgrading sub-par infrastructure [and even considering options like privatizing infrastructure if needed for funding purposes] and creating competitive conditions for U.S.-based manufacturing would be good places to start delivering meaningful jobs in the U.S."
N. Chandrasekaran, CEO, Tata Consultancy Services:
"Invest in education. The shortage of talent in key global markets...is holding sustainable recovery across the globe."
Nicholas Pinchuk, chairman and CEO, Snap-on Inc.:
"Government and business should work more clearly together in promoting the kind of technical education that can serve to strengthen the American manufacturing work force."
Francisco D'Souza, president and CEO, Cognizant Technology Solutions:
"It's been 21 years since Congress last reformed legal immigration. Millions of foreign skilled professionals are in legal limbo due to a massive backlog for permanent resident visas, hampering their ability to fully contribute to the U.S. economy and discouraging talented foreign professionals to consider working or starting a new business in the U.S."
James T. Prokopanko, president and CEO, The Mosaic Co.:
"Minimize the significant regulatory and litigation hurdles that hinder of provide a disincentive to investment....With greater regulatory uncertainty, Mosaic has two different billion-dollar investments we would make in central Florida over the next five years."
Paul Hermelin, CEO, Capgemini:
"The key point for growth is the restoration of confidence. This requires clarity about future priorities and more alignment."
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Nissan Motor CEO Carlos Ghosn
.Carlos Ghosn, chairman and CEO, Renault-Nissan Alliance
"Job creation....can be achieved in various ways, but particularly through two specific fields. The first woud be research and development, promoted both publicly and through companies' investments in R&D... The second would be the development of infrastructure."
Dr. Liu Jiren, chairman and CEO, Neusoft Corp.
"Today's global economic interconnectedness makes it impossible for any country address its recovery challenges and sustainability issues in isolation...Government and business should take decisive actions to promote the collaborations between countries to achieve breakthroughs in finding solutions to the most challenging issues on the global agenda."
Bob Nardelli, CEO, Cerberus Operations & Advisory Co.:
"I believe the government should consider assembling a blue ribbon team of both current successful CEOs as well as high-level retired business leaders...and give them a mandate and a budget to create hundreds of thousands of jobs."
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Lenovo Group CEO Yang Yuanqing
.Yang Yuanqing, CEO, Lenovo Group Ltd.:
"The most important issue in addressing the global challenges and opportunities we face is deepening our understanding of each other, our trust in each other and our recognition of the mutual benefits we can achieve in working together."
Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, Reliance Industries:
"Under the aegis of the G-20, emerging economies' central banks, especially that of the world' second largest economy, China, need to be discouraged from hiking interest rates further. The emerging economies growth engine cannot be allowed to stutter any further."
"Tiger" Tyagarajan, president and CEO, Genpact Ltd.:
"Convince, cajole, aggressively push China to drive domestic consumption, and have India, Brazil and a few other countries, maybe including Japan, push infrastructure spending much higher."
William Johnson, chairman and CEO, Progress Energy Inc.:
"We need a national energy policy tat provides more clarity, predictability and incentive for the enormous capital investment required."
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Westpac CEO Gail Kelly
.Gail Kelly, CEO, Westpac Banking Corp.
"For the next few years, perhaps the next decade, global growth will be driven by domestic demand in emerging economies... Most important will be to maintain fair and open trading policies, despite likely calls for greater protection, and to encourage the adjustment of currencies globally to reflect the new realities."
Ronald Williams, Executive Chairman, Aetna Inc.:
"The bully pulpit should be used to communicate that one of the highest and best pursuits for young people is creating new businesses and helping existing businesses profitably grow."
Frederick W. Smith, chairman and CEO, Fedex:
"Overhaul and simplify the tax code, go to a territorial tax system, and spur investment."
Glenn Hutchins, co-founder and co-CEO, Silver Lake:
"Reduce government budget deficits, achieving in the U.S. a minimum of $4 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years along the lines of Simpson-Bowles."
Dan Mudd, CEO, Fortress Investment Group LLC
"Markets understand stimulus is finite - and thus we are in an unvirtuous negative cycle: we stimulate, no one buys it, so we stimulate more, then we engage in political high drama over the stimulus (just to make sure nobody buys it." Recovery must be based on factual conviction that renewed confidence is merited. Deleveraging and restructuring are required to establish a new foundation."
George C. Halvorson, chairman and CEO, Kaiser Permanente:
"Health care costs are damaging the total economy and destroying government budgets. We spend twice as much money buying care as any other country on the planet... We need to significantly improve the processes of care delivery to the point where we get better care for less money than we spend now. "
Dominic Barton, managing director, McKinsey & Co.:
"To boost sustainable growth, let private capital help rebuild aging infrastructure....In this era of fiscal austerity, private capital, including from international investors, can be raised to fund needed infrastructure investment. Pension funds, asset managers, sovereign wealth funds, private equity roups, and private companies have all expressed interest in expanding their infrastructure portfolios. Our conversations with such investors indicate that advanced economies could conservatively expect to raise $250 billion to $500 billion over the next three years from these sources...to augment public funding and bring more rigorous project oversight and management."
Tom Albanese, CEO, Rio Tinto Group:
"Don't blame S&P for the downgrade, fix the problem with urgency. It will only get worse with time. Both political parties are right, and wrong. The government needs to increase revenue and reduce costs (including entitlement and military) without discouraging investment or sacrificing competitiveness. This is not easy, but it is possible."