Chile Forum

The reason for the question is simply that "high tech" covers so much territory that it is almost a useless term. I fully agree with you Tombrad on the application of work to improve commodity values before exportation. With regard to many other uses of the term, eg, computer hardware manufacture, I believe efforts would be met with truly unsatisfactory results.

Can chile develops the next big thing?
Even Sony TVs and fantastic electronic industry not helping Japan much this days:)

Maybe Chile can develop her university in par with MIT and stanford and from there some high tech wonders may move her away from fish and copper industry.
Mind you even UAE dubai is having plans of moving away from her oil wealth to diversify her economy and they have great wealth underneath!

Also like my state-of-the-art stainless steel pressure cooker from Chilean brand Marmicoc.

Marmicoc is an Argentinian Company

http://www.marmicoc.com/english/whoweare.htm

Zulu,

Thanks for the correction. I will have to assume that Chile cannot currently mass produce such a product with precise tolerances.

zulu789 wrote:Marmicoc is an Argentinian Company . . . .

Hey, at the rates that the two economies are going, Marmicoc may soon become a Chilean[-owned] company!

eeuunikkeiexpat wrote:. . . . I . . . assume that Chile cannot currently mass produce . . . with precise tolerances.

Not to be silly about it, but I wonder whether the not-infrequent earth tremors and quakes might inhibit such production: who'd invest in the costly machinery necessary if it had to be readjusted by scarce, highly skilled labor very often? I know that supposedly earthquake-proof residences are built, expensively. Perhaps the knowledge necessary for that construction would be directly applicable to heavier, more spacious industrial construction, though, from what little I've read on the subject, it might not be.

EEUU , no correction , you have in your hands a State of the art pressure cooker,That unit will last you many years,just be careful with the seals.
Marmicoc's are often used in Argentina to prepare "pucheros" or "cazuelas" to use a local Chilean cooking term.I'm sure you tried before.
Pucheros used to be the staple food for working families in Argentina, and are composed by a lot of vegetables (potatoes,squash,sweet potatoes,corn, acelga) and normally a low price cut of meat, preferably with bone (later you eat the bone Marrow with bread).

Going back to the topic , I will stay away of what these people are drinking...Chile the next japan?

Since the 70's, Chile has been dedicated to eliminate any manufacturing industry there was.
This steps are being accelerated by the adoption of the economic standard of the Social market Economy.
Long gone are excellent industries in different fields, like Bellavista Oveja Tome SA Company,Textiles Yarur Sumar,LOZAPENCO,CRAV,TEXTIL-VIÑA,MADENSA-MADECO,IRT
,car assembly lines like Peugeot and others.All efforts are being concentrated in the processing of primary commodity product (copper,fish,fruit,cellulose etc)not in the development of manufacturing industries
Like you said there is very little time left for Chile to become a manufacturing and high-tech country, maybe in the next turn of the MerryGoAround cycle of commodities....maybe

Zulu, this is very interesting. I've rich acquaintances, not known to each other, who've separately within the past few years established a weaving factory (of both cotton and wool, if I remember correctly, not far from Talcahuano) and a metalworking factory (I've forgotten where) in Chile. Each has remarked that the comparatively strong work-ethic among semi-skilled Chileans, decent level of general education, comparatively low levels of governmental regulation and taxation, and reasonable nearness to the United States contributed to their decisions to invest the great amount of money necessary, in the first case to buy, in the second, to build the factories. Certainly, the after-enacted free-trade agreements benefitted these off-shore enterprises.

But I'm surprised and, frankly, a bit troubled by the observation that Chile a generation ago determined to emphasize services over production of goods: agriculture and manufacturing together form a solid base for national economic advancement. Do you think, then, that the decision to discourage manufacturing was made consciously? Have you insight into the reasoning that led to it (beyond a possibly short-sighted consideration by the central government that Chile would never have a comparative advantage in manufacturing)? Do you see any signs of reversal?

'Sorry to plague you with questions, but I know almost nothing of this interesting subject and am uncertain that the Web would much aid my understanding.

I got myself into troubles again....

comparatively low levels of governmental regulation and taxation,

I will agree on the side of regulation but not on the side of taxation.Basically I think it will depend "compared to what".

Do you think, then, that the decision to discourage manufacturing was made consciously?

Of course, "El Ladrillo" was created during the Allende period.
El Ladrillo was the economic/social plan implemented by th economists opposed to Allende .This Plan was designated to obtain 4 major objectives:
1) the privatization of all the state owned companies in Chile.

2) As a byproduct of this, the elimination of syndicates and labor movements, at that time completely infiltrated by communists and left wing supporters.

3)Elimination of protectionist trade agreements. this in time forced the Chilean companies to compete with the rest of the world ( in a very unfair footing).

4)In consequence this companies were put on a "swim or sink" process, eliminating the ones unable to compete because they were based in very strict trade protections and subsidies This companies were owned by the right wing industrial oligarchy (MOMIOS) and leaving only the ones sided with the government.

All this is part of the "Miracle of Chile" words used by Milton Friedman to describe the economic change followed by Pinochet and carried away by the "Chicago Boys".

Corruption? Corruption is government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulations. That's Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel Prize.

Tim Blake Nelson "Danny Dalton " in the movie Syriana

Do you see any signs of reversal?

None, whatsoever .And it won't happen until the commodities price goes down and a major change in the economic markets happen .

Zulu,

The topics you are addressing are of interest to me....do you have any suggested reading in English or Spanish? I'd love to get up to speed. Thanks!

Hyre

Spanish:
http://www.memoriachilena.cl/mchilena01/temas/index.asp?id_ut=latransformacioneconomicachilenaentre1973-2003

from here on the left bar is a link named "documentos digitalizados", that take you to a list of PDF books.
The first one is "El ladrillo" on the end you will find "El carácter de la política económica de la Junta Militar" and "Una década de cambios económicos : la experiencia chilena : 1973-1983


This books cover different aspect of economic spectrum of Chile , form banking to labor laws , export and import policies etc...

English :

Pinochet's Economists
The Chicago School of Economics in Chile
By Juan Gabriel Valdes
(ISBN-13:9780521451468 | ISBN-10:0521451469)

http://www.rrojasdatabank.org/econom~1.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Boys

Good reading....

most of those are 3rd hand experience wrote by people contrary to chicagos (juan gabriel valdes by example), much better the sourse http://www.josepinera.com

TH SOURCE

I'm fired up.....

We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around in here instead of fighting over scraps of meat out in the streets. Corruption is why we win.

Search this guy , i knew him ,he was a friend of a friend of mine involved in mountain climbing.He was a master in breaking companies and sell them trough CORFO , and after that become member of the board of directors.ALL this while he was a public official (1979-89)

Positions held by years as public official :
Undersecretary of the Economy (1979-80), Undersecretary of Health (1980-83), Minister of Planning (1983-84), Superintendent of Banks and Financial Institutions (1984-85) and Minister of Finance (1985-89).

On the private sector:
Chairman of the Board and/or Member of the Board of several Public Enterprises such as ENDESA (power company), CAP (steel), IANSA (sugar), FFCC (railway) and CTC (telephone company), Codelco (Mining).
Director of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A.(soquimich), TRADED ON NYSE UNDER TICKER SQM since April 1993- Vice Chairman of SQM's Board from January 2000 to April 2002

In 1989 he was Candidate for the Presidency of Chile.

Actually He is currently a Board member in Quiñenco S.A., P y S S.A., Alto Palermo S.A., S.A.C.I. Falabella and Madeco S.A., among others.

His name Hernán Büchi B.

Hernan Buchi master in brak companies to sell to privates?
Oh boy, improve your readings!!!

All very interesting, Zulu and Tomás. I've read little enough about the underpinnings of the current Chilean economy. It now looks as though I've enough bedtime reading to last 'til I move down. My thanks to each of you.