Overview Latin America and the Caribbean region is the most urbanized in the developing world with about 74 percent of nearly five hundred million people living in and around the cities. A sharp recession hit the region in 1997, but there seems to be a positive outlook for the future. In the 1990’s, Latin America grew 3 percent per year on average. Inflation has fallen significantly, by the end of 2001 it is expected that all inflation percentages will be single digits with the exception of Ecuador. According to the World Bank, the average per capita income in Latin America and the Caribbean is nearly $4,000 a year. It is the most urbanized region in the developing world, with roughly three-quarters of its 502 million people living in and around cities, and has immense natural resources and diverse ecosystems. Latin America and the Caribbean claimed the largest share of World Bank lending of any region in fiscal year 2001, rising to $5.3 billion from $4.1 billion the year before. Foreign direct investment is also very important totaling 58 billion dollars in 1998. This reality has motivated several countries in Latin America to modernize and strengthen the financial markets, regulatory policies, and the public sector as such. According to Latin Trade’s analysis of the 100 major Latin American publicly traded companies, sales by sector have been distributed very favorably. Telecommunication and Energy sectors are the most representative ones overall in the region. Privatization efforts also offer important investment opportunities. These projects cover a wide-range of sectors. For instance, in the infrastructure arena there are projects for the construction, development, and/or management of roads, airports, and ports. Other areas are banking and financial services, generation and distribution of energy, transportation, and telecommunications. There are signs of increasing trade between the United States and Latin America. Latin America, not including Mexico, attained a positive balance of fourteen billion dollars this year, four times more that in 1999 according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. This is due largely to the higher oil prices reached last year. Oil exports from Venezuela doubled in year 2000 totaling thirteen billion dollars.