REUTERS NEWS ADVISORY

Brazil to cut budget up to 20 billion reais

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's government will announce a spending freeze of 14 billion reais to 20 billion reais ($8.1 billion to $11.6 billion) focused on congressional amendments, Planning Minister Paulo Bernardo told Reuters on Wednesday.

"Any scenario we take will be a prudent one," Bernardo said at the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit in Brasilia.

"We're being very careful. The international scenario could somehow affect our economy and reduce our revenue," he told Reuters.

Congress had already cut 12 billion reais ($6.97 billion) in spending from the 2008 budget in March. In December it had voted down a key financial transaction tax worth 38 billion reais in revenues.

The government intends to focus cuts on discretionary spending that legislators attach to congressional amendments, Bernardo told Reuters.

The administration expects 5 percent economic growth this year and maintains a 3.8 percent primary budget surplus target, which excludes debt service payments, he said at the Reuters Summit.

Mexico's Walmex sees rough ride in 2008

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's Wal-Mart arm sees a tough 2008 due to an economic slowdown but the company, Mexico's leading retailer, expects good first-quarter results.

"The macroeconomic environment is not favorable because there is a slowdown ... led by the United States," Wal-Mart de Mexico Chief Executive Eduardo Solorzano told Reuters on Wednesday.

"Maybe this has also been accompanied by inflationary pressures in raw materials and that ends up having an impact on many of the products we sell," he told the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit in Mexico City.

The retailer, known as Walmex, was hurt last year by a slowdown in the Mexican and U.S. economies, along with most Mexican retailers.

A slump in the U.S. construction sector, which employs many Mexican immigrants, also reduced the amount of money that they send back home, and a U.S. recession is feared this year.

Nevertheless, Walmex, an affiliate of giant U.S. retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc, plans to open 205 new stores in Mexico this year as it targets its price reduction campaign more than ever on low income clients.

Solorzano told Reuters first-quarter results are likely to be decent. "I think (the first quarter) will be a good quarter, not spectacular," he said.

Chile eyes $700 mln '08 telco investment

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile will likely see investment of between $600 million and $700 million in its telecommunications sector in 2008, mostly in wireless Internet and mobile phone networks, the government told Reuters on Wednesday.

Chile Telecommunications Undersecretary Pablo Bello told the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit in Chile that strong growth in the sector would be reflected in a 10 percent increase in the number of mobile phone users to nearly 100 percent penetration.

"This is a key year, with more investments, more competition and more connectivity," Bello told Reuters.

There were 14 million mobile phone lines in Chile by the end of 2007, compared with a population of around 16 million.

Bello said, however, there was still room in Chile for a fourth mobile carrier, which would help stoke competition between leading operator Movistar, a unit of Spain's Telefonica; Entel's ENT.SN Entel PCS; and Claro, a unit of Mexico's America Movil.

He told Reuters the government would also decide before the end of May which digital television system to adopt, a move hotly awaited by the sector and consumers.

Bello forecast Latin America's telecommunications industry would likely grow around 10 percent a year on average over the next decade due to excess capacity and ample unsatisfied demand.

"In Latin America we have a great deal of space for telecommunications to keep growing at a substantial rate," Bello told Reuters.

New Mexico port could open in 4 years

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will open a tender by mid-year for a huge new Pacific coast container port that would be connected by rail to the United States, Communications and Transport Minister Luis Tellez told Reuters on Wednesday.

Tellez told the Latin American Investment Summit the terminal should be in operation in four to five years. He said there was a lot of interest from U.S., Mexican, European and Asian companies to build the port, which could cost up to $6 billion.

The port, planned for Punta Colonet on the Baja California peninsula about 80 miles south of Ensenada near the U.S. border, would take cargo shipments coming from Asia and bound for North American markets.

"The tender for this port will be around mid-year," Tellez told Reuters.

Los Angeles and Long Beach are the main ports in southern California, but are straining to handle the explosive growth in trade with Asian nations, led by China's export boom.

Mexico sees a cargo port in Punta Colonet as a chance to become a player in that trade route.

Tellez also told Reuters a tender for a concession to build and operate an airport in the Riviera Maya resort area will open in the second half of 2008, and he saw no competition issues with airport operator Asur taking part in the bidding process.

Asur, which has expressed interest in bidding for the Riviera Maya project, already runs nine airports in southern Mexico, including one serving the Caribbean resort of Cancun.

Peru's Buenaventura eyes record in '08

LIMA, April 2 (Reuters) - Peruvian miner Buenaventura told Reuters on Wednesday two of its gold projects face community opposition, but that 2008 will be a record-setting year for its main silver and gold mines.

Silver output at its Uchucchacua mine should increase to 12 million ounces in 2008 from 9.9 million ounces in 2007, Buenaventura Chief Executive Roque Benavides told Reuters. He said gold output at its Orcopampa mine will rise to 300,000 ounces in 2008 from 267,935 ounces in 2007.

"Both will have record productions this year," said Benavides, speaking at the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit in Lima, Peru.

He told Reuters gold output at its Antapite mine should fall to 70,000 ounces in 2008 from 72,171 ounces in 2007 because of problems replacing reserves. Besides its direct operations, Buenaventura has minority stakes in Yanacocha, Latin America's largest gold mine and Cerro Verde, a large copper pit. Copper output at Cerro Verde in 2008 should grow to 300,000 tonnes from 269,537 tonnes in 2007, said Benavides, who acknowledged community opposition could cause delays at the company's gold projects, Tantahuatay and La Zanja.

"I think communities have become quite militant. That is obvious. That is happening all over Peru," Benavides told Reuters, adding that if Buenaventura had an "open road," production at

the gold projects would start before the end of 2008. Once working, the two gold mines together should produce between 160,000 and 200,000 ounces of gold per year, said Benavides.

Mexico sees Telmex in TV market in 2008

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican fixed-line phone giant Telmex will be allowed to offer television services later this year, once it has complied with some competition conditions, Communications and Transport Minister Luis Tellez told Reuters on Wednesday.

"In the end, Telmex is going to be able to offer this service. ... We are working on it and seeing what the conditions are that they have to fulfill," Tellez told the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit. "They are conditions that bring more opening, more competition and better prices for users."

Telmex is Mexico's largest provider of high speed Internet service, which analysts say puts it in a good position to broadcast television over its Internet network.

Telmex's move into broadcasting has been shrouded in controversy because its operating concession can be read to mean it is banned from going into the TV business.

Mexico's government opened a probe late last year into monopoly practices in the broadband Internet market. Telmex, owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, has about 60 percent of the country's high-speed Internet market, and about 90 percent of fixed lines.

Asked if Telmex will be allowed into television this year, Tellez told Reuters: "Without a doubt."