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APPENDICES

Appendix A: Governance Indicators

The World Bank publishes every year a paper, which reports on the worldwide governance indicators: “Governance Matters V: aggregate and Individual Governance Indicators for 1996-2005” covers 213 countries and territories and measures six dimensions of governance:

Voice and accountability (VA), the extent to which a country’s citizens are able to participate in selecting their government, as well as freedom of expression, freedom of association, and free media;
Political stability and absence of violence (PV), perceptions of the likelihood that the government will be destabilized or overthrown by unconstitutional or violent means, including political violence and terrorism;
Government effectiveness (GE), the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government’s commitment to such policies;
Regulatory quality (RQ), the ability of the government to formulate and implement sound policies and regulations that permit and promote private sector development;
Rule of law (RL), the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence;
Control of corruption (CC), the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain, including both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well as “capture” of the state by elites and private interest

All Governance indicator scores lie between -2.5 and 2.5, with higher scores corresponding to better outcomes. In the tables below, the governance indicators are given for the countries considered in this study, with additional the Netherlands for comparison.

Appendix B: Corruption Perceptions Indices

Since 1995, Transparency International has published an annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) ordering the countries of the world according to "the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians". The organization defines corruption as "the abuse of public office for private gain". In the table below the CPI is presented for the countries considered in this study, with additional Finland (least corrupt country) and the Netherlands for comparison. The CPI ranges between 10 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt).

Appendix C: Human Development Indicators

Appendix D: Doing business indicators

Appendix E: Foreign trade statistics

Reliability of foreign trade statistics
Notwithstanding the attractiveness of the comprehensive source of information from SIECA and TradeMap, some of the following weak points of foreign trade statistics should be considered with interpreting the numbers taken from these sources and presented in this study:

Trade data are never complete. Smuggling and non-reporting represent a serious problem in a number of countries. In addition, trade statistics, like any source of information, are not free of mistakes and omissions.
Re-exports. Most countries include imports for re-exports and re-exports in their trade statistics. A low-income country may show up as an exporter of airplanes simply because its national airline has sold second-hand planes.
Contract value vs. local value-added. According to international conventions for reporting trade statistics, the export value refers to the total or contract value, which may of course, be very different from local value-added. For many processing activities the local value added remains below 20% of the export value.
Merchandise vs. services trade. Detailed trade statistics are available only for merchandise trade and not for services, although the latter may account for a sizeable share of national exports.
Misleading product groupings. Even at the lowest level of disaggregation, product groups in the trade nomenclatures do not necessarily reflect trade names and often contain a wide range of different products. Moreover, the product nomenclature is sometimes misleading. The labels of aggregated product groups are often very general and provide at times only limited guidance on the leading items within the group of products concerned.
Exchange rate fluctuations. Exchange rate fluctuations are not always properly recorded in international trade statistics. Values are normally aggregated over the period of one year in local currency and converted into US dollars.
Mirror statistics. For countries that do not report trade data to the United Nations, partner country data is used, an approach referred to as mirror statistics. Mirror statistics are a second-best solution being better than having no data at all. At the same time, they have a number of shortcomings when compared to the first-best solution of nationally reported data. First and foremost, they do not cover trade with other non-reporting countries. As a result, mirror statistics hardly cover South-South trade and would not be a suitable source for an assessment of intra-African trade. Second, there is the problem of transshipments, which may hide the actual source of supply. Third, mirror statistics invert the reporting standards by valuing exports in c.i.f. terms (i.e. including transport cost and insurance) and imports in f.o.b. terms (excluding these items).

In view of the above shortcomings, foreign trade statistics should never be the sole source of insight, but need to be complemented by other sources and in particular cross-checked by product specialists and industry insiders. Overall, ITC’s experience suggests that trade statistics represent a very useful source of information and a valid point of departure for strategic market research, if analyzed with a healthy mix of scepticism and pragmatism vis-à-vis their strengths and shortcomings
Harmonized System Codes (HS Codes)
The HS codes used in this study can be obtained thorugh http://www.wcoomd.org/.

Appendix F: Market export share

Appendix G: EVD Development support programs

CPA: Joint promotional activities – CPA is a programme for Dutch and other EU organisations who organize business meetings, fair participation or other joint promotional activities for Dutch exporting companies. The objective is to promote trade, investment and cooperation of Dutch companies in international markets and make participation in joint promotional activities possible.

Matchmaking facility: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Development Cooperation) has developed a programme on matchmaking for companies in developing countries, with the overall goal of stimulating private sector development in developing countries. The facility enables matching of companies from developing countries with Dutch companies to attract Dutch investments in these countries. It should result in cooperation between the local company and the Dutch company with the long term goal of a joint investment. This investment could be a risky (pilot) investment financed partly by PSOM, but it might as well be a regular investment in existing businesses.

PESP: Programme for Economic Co-operation in Projects – PESP is a programme that strengthens bilateral economic relations with non-OECD countries (including Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Mexico, South Korea, Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles) with the aim of increasing the likelihood of Dutch companies obtaining orders in those countries.
Dutch companies and consortiums can submit proposals for activities leading up to export transactions. The activities may be feasibility studies, project identification, and investment preparation studies. These activities must result in early familiarisation of the foreign party with the offers of Dutch companies, and an increased probability of the Dutch business community acquiring orders in the project implementation phase. PESP is applicable for projects and not for market research or acquisition activities of individual companies.

PSB: Programma Starters op Buitenlandse markten – The objective of PSB is to support small and medium size busnisses with no or little experience in export activities entering a new foreign market.

PSOM: The Programme for Cooperation with Emerging Markets - PSOM is a Dutch governmental programme that aims at encouraging (Dutch) investments in emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
PSOM stimulates pilot investments in the private sector and promotes long term trade relations as the driving force behind sustainable economic development in countries in transition and developing countries. Investments generate employment, income and knowledge transfer, and strengthen the local private sector. Because this contributes to poverty alleviation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Development Cooperation) invests in PSOM. The Ministry of Economic Affairs aims not only at stimulating economic development, but also at the positioning of Dutch companies on these markets.

Appendix H: Interviewed persons representing public and private entities

Costa Rica
Augustin Penon	Exporpack	Director
Jan Wybrand Tuinstra	Fidesplants	Director
Bart de Lange	Florbella / Acoflor	Director / President
Sergio Navas	CADEXCO	Director
Carlos Cespedes	CADEXCO	Project Manager
Eduardo Gonzalez	Procomer	Marketing expert
Martin Zuñiga	Procomer	Director

El Salvador
Ana Vilma de Escobar	Republic of El Salvador	Vice President of the Republic
Antonio Jose Alfaro	Cadesal	General Manager
Mauricio Montenegro	Bromelias y Heliconias	Director
Aldo Vallejo	Exporta	Director
Maricela Ibarra de Melendez	Exporta	Strategic Advisor
Marco Arroyo	Proesa	Sub Director
Ernesto Sol	Sol del Norte	General Manager
Margarita de Cordoba / Maria Miranda	Caposa	Director / Project Manager
Mauricio Montenegro	Ornamental Specialties	Director
Keith Andrews / Priscilla Henriquez	IICA	Head of IICA El Salvador / Specialist in competitiveness
Rafael Ruiz Suarez	Ministerio de Economia (Quality and Technology)	Director

Guatemala
Harman Idema	Dutch Embassy	Jefe de misión Adjunto – Jefe de Cooperación
Jeronimo Lancerio	PBL Tropical Plants	Director
Fred Luna	De Ruiter Seeds	Director
Byron Calderon	Ecke Guatemala	Director
Luis Oscar Estrada	Ministry of Economy	Minister of Economy
Estuardo Arriaga	Orofarms	Director
Roberto Díaz Schwarz	Agricultural Advisory Board	Director coordinator
Guillermo Springmuhl	Servicios Internacionales de Exportación	Director
Gustavo Ruiz	Export Alliance Incorporated	General Manager
Luis F. Godoy	Agexport	Director
José Eduardo Castro	Agroaltos	Marketing and operations director
Pablo Ferrigno / Manuel Valdez	Ministry of Agriculture – agronegocios	Director / Project Manager
Claudio Cabrera Gaillard	Ministry of Agriculture	Vice Minister
Mariano Reyna	Matas	General Manager
Alfredo Miron	Grupo Tak	Presidente

Honduras
Medardo Galindo	FPX	General manager
24 persons of various organizations and companies	CBI / FPX consultant program	Consultants / participants
Daniel Adan Macias	Secretary of Agriculture	Jefe Centro de Agronegocios
Jorge Salandia	Secretary of Agriculture	Jefe INFOAGRO
Jack Cole	Honduplants	Director
Alex Obiolis	Honduplants	Director
Hermann Karow	Alyser	Director
Hector Fernandez	Alyser	Director
Enrique Flores	Agroindustria El Sifon	Director
Julio Garcia	Tukan Agro	Director

Nicaragua
Ariel Bucardo Rocha	Ministry of Agriculture	Minister
Spencer Manners	Ecoverde	Director
Manolo Porro	Hidroponica	Director
Jorge Brenes Abdalah	APEN	General Manager
Armando Serrano	Mangosa / Melonicsa	Director
Lambert Grijns	Dutch Embassy	Ambassador

Panama
Manuel Fernandez	Mr. Agro Hub Multimodal Latino-americano	Director Executive director
Rodolfo Navarro	GANTRAP	Member Board of Directors
Omar Estrada	Fenix Busnisses Inc.	Director
Ismael Bernal	Ministry of Agriculture	Director of Agroexports unit
Erick Fidel Santamaria	Ministry of Agriculture	Vice Minister of Agriculture
Rafael Castillo	R.C. Agro Supplies	Presidente
Alexis Guerrero	Campos de Pese	General Manager

Netherlands
Wim Grootscholten	Rijk Zwaan	Manager Latin America
Fred Rennen	Hispafruit	Commercial Director

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