International

PR wheeler-dealer Ian Kortlang has become the new chief of Burson-Marsteller's Australian office, ousting CEO Varina Nissen. Kortlang has a reputation for backstabbing former clients, such as a local Australian winery that he represented before switching sides to represent its adversary, a well-heeled multinational corporation, in a bitter business dispute.

A fundraising letter from the Liberal Party in British Columbia, Canada, is "inviting people who work in public relations to donate $10,000 apiece at the same time that the provincial government is assessing contract proposals from the industry," reports the Globe and Mail, one of Canada's national newspapers. In addition to making direct cash donations, the letter invites PR firms to "build a fund-raising effort around an event or two -- events where we can invite clients or others for an intimate lunch or dinner with a key cabinet minister."

"Saudi Arabia should stop its 'PR drivel' in the U.S., and flat out explain to the American people that serious issues exist between the Kingdom and the U.S., according to Khaled Al-Maeena, editor-in-chief of Arab News, the Kingdom's English-language paper," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. "He urges Saudi Arabia to 'abandon those fancy public relations firms whose own executives look at us unfavorably, but are doing the job for the dollars.'" Saudi Arabia's PR firm, Qorvis Communications, receives $200,000 a month for its work.

El Salvador has hired PR giant Fleishman Hillard to promote the country internationally encourage foreign investment reports PR Week. The campaign, "El Salvador Works," seeks to double the rate of foreign capital by 2004. In the past two years, foreign countries have sunk $500 million into El Salvador, with about 60% coming from the US. Fleishman Hillard highlight the country's low interest rate and "open economy" as selling points to international investors.