World Economic Forum report

[sergio]

From last week's BA Herald reporting on the World Economic Forum
just held in Santiago: "Argentina came in ninth position, third
from the bottom, in a survey of the best countries in which to invest.
The interational survey of twelve Latin American countries was provided
on the first afternoon of the World Economic Forum meeting in Santiago,
Chile. In its specific reference to Argentina in a 49 page
document...the WEF report said that 'in terms of its environment's
attractiveness to private investment in infrastructure, Argentina is
ranked 9th within the country sample'.The report said that 'in particular, the track record on private
investment in infrastructure...represents, quite predictably, the
biggest hindrance to the country's potential to attract private
investors'". The ranking is as follows: Chile. Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Uruguay, El Salvador, Guatemala, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia. Republica Dominicana.

 

[Granadaiscool]

From last week's BA Herald reporting on the World Economic Forum
just held in Santiago: "Argentina came in ninth position, third
from the bottom, in a survey of the best countries in which to invest.
The interational survey of twelve Latin American countries was provided
on the first afternoon of the World Economic Forum meeting in Santiago,
Chile.
In its specific reference to Argentina in a 49 page
document...the WEF report said that 'in terms of its environment's
attractiveness to private investment in infrastructure, Argentina is
ranked 9th within the country sample'.
The report said that 'in particular, the track record on private
investment in infrastructure...represents, quite predictably, the
biggest hindrance to the country's potential to attract private
investors'".
The ranking is as follows: Chile. Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Uruguay, El Salvador, Guatemala, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia. Republica Dominicana.

Something to be proud of for K. Finishing ahead of Venezuela, Bolivia and Domincan republic

 

[bigbadwolf]

The report said that 'in particular, the track record on private
investment in infrastructure...represents, quite predictably, the
biggest hindrance to the country's potential to attract private
investors'".
The ranking is as follows: Chile. Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Uruguay, El Salvador, Guatemala, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia. Republica Dominicana.

The ability to attract private investment doesn't necessarily add to a country's welfare. Foreign bondholders and shareholders, as well as local elites, might make out like bandits, but this doesn't mean the population at large prospers. Indeed, we saw Argentina attracting large flows of "capital" during the Menem presidency -- and in what way did the lot of common people improve during that period? Today, I'm not sure the average Chilean is any more prosperous than the average Argentinian.

 

[Granadaiscool]

Chile has everything that Argentina will never have, including a prosperous middle class.
But who the hell needs jobs, life is good in the villa's

 

[realba]

BBW i'd strongly disagree with the idea that the average argentine is as well off as the average chilean. you only have to come to chile to see the difference in wealth and living standards. the middle class over here is growing, an average young professional can expect to be a home owner before the age of 30 and a new car owner in his early 20s. chile has a currency that is worth something in the outside world. although the wealth divide hasn't improved and chile still has one of the widest wealth gaps in the world, overall poverty levels have decreased dramatically in the last few years. chile's poor are not as poor as argentina's. there are government programmes that give subsidies for the poor to buy homes, mortgages are widely available and cheap. corruption is practically non-existent on a day to day basis. the economy is stable and growing, financial institutions and structures are respected and the government is not seen as a power hungry bunch of thieves as in argentina.

of course argentina is way ahead of chile is in some areas, notably education and social healthcare-two very important issues- but on the whole chile has a much greater chance of further wealth creation in the future than argentina (unless an earthquake and then a big tsunami wipe the country out and we all have to move back across the andes...). argentina has huge potential but it has consistently failed to live up to it due to cultural and political reasons (which i'm not even going to start mentioning for fear that the thread will go off onto one of those boring 'everything in argentina is wrong' topics).

 

[Granadaiscool]

BBW i'd strongly disagree with the idea that the average argentine is as well off as the average chilean. you only have to come to chile to see the difference in wealth and living standards. the middle class over here is growing, an average young professional can expect to be a home owner before the age of 30 and a new car owner in his early 20s. chile has a currency that is worth something in the outside world. although the wealth divide hasn't improved and chile still has one of the widest wealth gaps in the world, overall poverty levels have decreased dramatically in the last few years. chile's poor are not as poor as argentina's. there are government programmes that give subsidies for the poor to buy homes, mortgages are widely available and cheap. corruption is practically non-existent on a day to day basis. the economy is stable and growing, financial institutions and structures are respected and the government is not seen as a power hungry bunch of thieves as in argentina.

of course argentina is way ahead of chile is in some areas, notably education and social healthcare-two very important issues- but on the whole chile has a much greater chance of further wealth creation in the future than argentina (unless an earthquake and then a big tsunami wipe the country out and we all have to move back across the andes...). argentina has huge potential but it has consistently failed to live up to it due to cultural and political reasons (which i'm not even going to start mentioning for fear that the thread will go off onto one of those 'everything in argentina is wrong' topics).

Chile is a serious country, Argentina is not. That about sums it up.
“In particular, the track record on private investment in infrastructure ... represents, quite predictably, the biggest hindrance to the country’s potential to attract private investors, with one of the highest percentages of projects distressed or cancelled, and what seems to be a habit of the government to terminate contracts without reasonable compensation; public ethics is assessed as rather poor, with widespread diversion of public funds, irregular payments in connection to the awarding of public contracts, favouritism in decisions of public officials and low levels of trust in the honesty of politicians. In addition, the dispute settlement system and regulatory efficiency are not up to international standards ...”
Very positive indeed.
P.S. Anybody care to compare the corruption index of Chile and Argentina?