Liveblog: Latin America in the Current Global Context

and that’ll wrap up the summit on putting latam in a global context… it’s been a blast liveblogging. be sure to tune in for the rest of the summit in lima.

public-private partnership frameworks seem to be stronger in pacific alliance countries

“latin america invests about 3% of gdp in infrastructure, while it should invest at least twice this figure.”

hard to argue with this claim. the region needs infrastructure overhaul.

for more info on populations under 15 years of age, here’s a good source:
http://www.globalhealthfacts.org/data/topic/map.aspx?ind=82

“in the case of costa rica, the education budget was doubled, and the army was eliminated.”

it helps to not have big geopolitical rivalries or security frictions with neighbors.

in general, latam benefits from the fact that it’s insulated from geopolitical instability, and anchored by the size of the american economy up north.

here’s a mexico fun fact: mexico recently became the first developing nation to adopt legislation to tackle the impact of climate change.
(that being said, mexico is well on its way to developed– perhaps not so surprising!)

because of political/monetary independence, latam countries can implement diverse policies and maintain their own approaches– but collaborate where useful, and find best practices from neighbors.

china is the destination for more than 10% of latam exports…

only going one direction:

“the challenge of renewed, pragmatic integration”– most latam countries may share a common language, but priorities/values often differ. hard to wrap them all into any given regional trade architecture.

take mercosur– it’s hard to construct a proactive trade agenda when there’s so much asymmetry among the interests of its members.

oddly, mercosur has signed only three ftas with countries outside the region– those three? israel, egypt, and the palestinian authority…

Economic self-interest is the most powerful growth engine & can be rich with opportunities – Marriott CEO Sorenson #LATAMcontext #LA13 #WEF

— World Economic Forum (@wef) April 24, 2013

i’d like to hear about the upsurge of crime violence against a backdrop of institutional weakness– and the humanitarian/economic toll it can take on the region’s development.

arne sorenson of marriott international is talking about the power of economic incentives and opportunities to unlock developmental improvement

there’s been a lot of talk about prescriptive suggestions– what latam countries should be doing, need to be doing, want to be doing– it’s important to put it in context with the political situation on the ground.

what’s the most telling variable for assessing which policy path these countries will take? the level of political capital that the respective governments enjoy, measured based on..
a. popular support
b. capacity to work with stakeholders (public institutions, business leaders, relevant power players, etc)
c. timing of electoral cycle (free from another campaign for a healthy window of time? fresh off a big victory? etc)

costa rica certainly eying ftas in asia– they’ve got one ratified in china, one signed in singapore, and one negotiated in south korea..

getting commentary from costa rican minister of foreign trade. costa rican president laura chinchilla’s administration faces low public support– to put it understatedly– her approval ratings in feb were 12%.

starting with minister of economy and finance of peru– luis miguel castilla rubio. the question: peru’s growth is solid (6%+). how do we make that sustainable?

here we go:

Next up, we’ve got #LATAMcontext at #LA13 – stream the session live here: wef.ch/43875 #WEF

— World Economic Forum (@davos) April 24, 2013

looking forward to liveblogging another wef latam summit– it’s starting shortly.

if you missed my play-by-play of the ‘delivering growth’ summit with speeches from the presidents of peru, mexico, and panama, you can find it here:

https://agenda.weforum.org/2013/04/liveblog-latin-america-delivering-growth-strengthening-societies/