Isabela, Puerto Rico (March 18, 2010) – AXON Puerto Rico, Inc. (APR), a joint venture between Pratt & Whitney and HCL AXON, today inaugurated its SAP® Services Center in Isabela and announced plans to grow to 300 employees. The Governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuño, made the announcement with executives from both global companies.
APR provides SAP® application management, solutions implementation and near-shore delivery and consulting services for projects in the Americas. It serves various business segments, including: defense, government, export markets and private enterprise. Due to the Center’s bilingual capabilities, it also serves the Latin America market. HCL AXON, the biggest global provider of SAP® solutions services, is a division of HCL Technologies, a Business Transformation consultancy that delivers significant value to large, complex organizations through support of SAP® technologies. Pratt & Whitney is a United Technologies company (NYSE:UTX).
The new 33,444-square-foot Services Center is located on the property of the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO) at the Mora Guerrero Industrial Park in Isabela.

“Puerto Rico has unique characteristics that attract this type of businesses from the aerospace sector. First, being Puerto Rico a US territory, we are subject to the same federal regulations. We are also in a strategic position and offer economic and tax incentives that are very attractive to this type of business,” said Hon. Luis Fortuño, Governor of Puerto Rico.
“Puerto Rico enjoys a uniquely attractive position to promote the start-up of new companies in the aerospace sector. Since the end of 2008, the aerospace industry reflects an investment of $18 Million and the creation of 500 direct jobs in Puerto Rico. Our commitment at PRIDCO is to continue to increase the presence of the aerospace sector in the Island, in order to diversify our industrial base and create highly technical and well compensated jobs,” said Javier Vázquez –Morales, Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO).
“Pratt & Whitney is highly committed to Puerto Rico. Our joint venture Infotech Aerospace Services, Inc. currently has 660 employees and AXON Puerto Rico already surpassed the100-job mark. After the goal of 300 high-technology jobs is reached at AXON Puerto Rico, there will be almost 1,000 employees in the Isabela operations. This makes us very proud,” said Rita Peralta, AXON Puerto Rico President.
“We greatly value our partnership with Pratt & Whitney and look forward to a highly successful development of the vision we have created together and which is now a reality at AXON Puerto Rico. This SAP services center is positioned to deliver exactly what the market is looking for,” said Steve Cardell, CEO of HCL AXON.
Chris Beiswenger, Executive Vice President of HCL AXON Americas stated “AXON Puerto Rico is a critical element in serving our Aerospace & Defense customers. The service our customers receive from AXON Puerto Rico is outstanding and the capabilities offered give us a unique position in the marketplace. Our partnership with Pratt & Whitney and our commitment to grow jobs in Puerto Rico are extremely strong.”

About Pratt & Whitney
Pratt & Whitney is a world leader in the design, manufacture and service of aircraft engines, space propulsion systems and industrial gas turbines.
About United Technologies Corporation
United Technologies, based in Hartford, Conn., is a diversified company providing high technology products and services to the global aerospace and building industries.

About HCL AXON
HCL AXON (www.hcl-AXON.com), a division of HCL Technologies, is a business transformation consultancy that delivers significant value to large, complex organizations through the innovative implementation and support of SAP technologies. HCL AXON has over 4,700 of the industry’s most experienced professionals specializing in the delivery of sustained business improvement through technology-enabled transformation programs. HCL AXON's consultants bring in-depth industry expertise alongside best practice functional knowledge to address the strategic, operational, information management and organizational challenges faced by organizations today. HCL AXON is renowned for its global ability to help clients define more ambitious strategies, build more effective organizations and shape more successful futures.

About HCL Technologies
HCL Technologies is a leading global IT services company, working with clients in the areas that impact and redefine the core of their businesses. Since its inception into the global landscape after its IPO in 1999, HCL focuses on ‘transformational outsourcing’, underlined by innovation and value creation, and offers integrated portfolio of services including software-led IT solutions, remote infrastructure management, engineering and R&D services and BPO. HCL leverages its extensive global offshore infrastructure and network of offices in 26 countries to provide holistic, multi-service delivery in key industry verticals including Financial Services, Manufacturing, Consumer Services, Public Services and Healthcare. HCL takes pride in its philosophy of ‘Employee First’ which empowers our 55,688 transformers to create a real value for the customers. HCL Technologies, along with its subsidiaries, had consolidated revenues of US$ 2.5 billion (Rs. 11,833 crores), as on 31st December 2009 (on LTM basis). For more information, please visit www.hcltech.com.

SAP is a trademark of SAP AG.

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO, March 2, 2010 — Could a single young engineer beat a Fortune 500 company in creating jobs? If that young engineer is Russian-born Sergey Brin dreaming of forming something called “Google,” the answer is Yes.

What if geniuses brought their ideas to Puerto Rico when they emigrated to the United States? Advisory firm Spectrum Group intends to make just this happen through a mission to Washington, District of Columbia, March 3-5, 2010 to support the Startup Visa legislation introduced on February 24, 2010 by U.S. Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN). The bill would provide a path to U.S. permanent residency (“green card”) to foreign nationals that obtain financing from U.S. investors to create U.S. jobs, including Puerto Rico.

“When Davids are beating Goliaths, attracting global innovators matters more than attracting global investors,” said Spectrum Group Managing Partner Cesar “Tito” Montilla. “With the passage of this bill, we will be able to compete for the best ideas in the world.” The Spectrum Group intends to tap its extensive network of local investors to finance entrepreneurial ventures in sectors where Puerto Rico is globally competitive.

The Startup Visa bill proposes to offer immigrant entrepreneurs a two-year visa if they can show that a qualified U.S. investor is wiling to invest $250,000 into the entrepreneur’s venture. If after two years the immigrant entrepreneur can demonstrate the creation of five jobs, $1,000,000 in investment or $1,000,000 in revenue, they would receive permanent legal resident status. More information about the bill is available at www.startupvisa.com.

“If tomorrow every immigrant entrepreneur took their companies back to their home countries, half of Silicon Valley would shut down instantly,” explained Spectrum Group Partner Marcos Polanco, citing research at the University of California at Berkeley. “The secret to economic development today is that these new companies are creating twice as many jobs as old companies.”

About The Spectrum Group:

The Spectrum Group is an advisory firm that over the past 10 years has raised over $100M in private investment to create over 7,500 jobs in Puerto Rico. The firm anchors a network of over 200 accredited investors and focuses on real estate, industrial, media, biosciences, energy and information technology ventures.

Contact: Marcos Polanco

Partner, The Spectrum Group

Phone: 787-529-5892

Email: marcos@clearshore.us

Source: The Spectrum Group

252 Ponce de León Avenue

Suite 802

San Juan, Puerto Rico 00917

Phone: 787-620-1010

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A recent study by the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute found that the island ranks as #41 out of 141 global economies when utilizing the World Bank evaluation methodology. The island's strongest scores came in its assimilation of global technological change (#36) and incentives framework (#37) and weaker in education and human capital (#53).

The study aims to spur better data gathering on the key performance indicators and to enable sage policymaking in this mission-critical arena.

The government of Puerto Rico has just published its Strategic Model for a New Economy, its economic development blueprint. Fortunately for those of us committed to technological innovation, the Island's definitive participation in the knowledge economy is a fundamental aspect of the plan. Few analysts realize that Puerto Rico has two of the United States' largest engineering schools, and that 25% of the world's biological manufacturing capability resides on the Island…the innovation economy is at hand.

Two elements form the axis of the innovation plan: technology-exporting entrepreneurs and R&D-attracting global enterprises. Together, the plan calls for their integration into a soup-to-nuts value chain, from R&D to operations and distribution.

A key infrastructure element to achieve this goal will be the completion of the Science District, a 78-acre R&D center under management by the Puerto Rico Science, Technology & Research Trust.

An essential funding element will be the Special Fund for Economic Development, managed by the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company, and its focus will be on pushing along venture capital investments in technology-driven enterprises.

Finally, the government plans to redefine the role of the University of Puerto Rico, most likely with an emphasis on technology transfer for private sector commercialization; the University is widely seen as an unexploited source of intellectual property.

Puerto Rico has been awarded the Caribbean and Central American Country of the Future 2009/10 award by fDi Magazine. In the first year of the combined competition, Puerto Rico marginally grasped first place as the top three countries, including Costa Rica (ranked second) and the Dominican Republic (ranked third), were separated by a mere three points.

Puerto Rico achieved not only the top ranking overall, but also the top ranking in the category of business friendliness. The country has the largest number of companies involved in high-tech manufacturing, high-tech services, and knowledge-based sectors in comparison with the rest of the Caribbean and Central American region. More...