Chile Forum

Chile lacks a couple big things that lead to say a country being considered for something like G8 membership.

1. Lack of entrepreneurial inclination in the general population.
There are some, but limited. Often those that are in business are merely following someone else lead, and copying poorly the idea.

2. Technology
The state of technology is abysmal. I have covered this in depth related to computers, but it applies to other areas. No one here is doing any real ground breaking research on mass (yea there are couple out there) in technological related fields, and even basic adoption by major corporations and the government are years behind the rest of the World. At some points in Chilean society it is over a decade behind or more.

I went out yesterday to buy a couple simple and common computer parts. There was basically none in Temuco. I wanted a simple computer case to build a new server and a couple other things. There was only like 3 variations in the entire town (I went to every store), and they were pure garbage. They were out of just about everything else also. All the computer stores basically had owners sitting behind the desk, as they have eliminated their staffs. All saying, next week we will have them. Yes, one of the largest and fastest growing cities in Chile essentially does not have any basic computer components. Forget any exotic things like blade servers and so on. They simply do not exist, and chances are no one here would know what to do with them if they did. I found one gigbit network card in Temuco and was quoted 27,000 pesos (over $60). I can buy one in the States for around $5. Forget trying to find a switch or router to go with it.

Ordering from Santiago was no better. Place and order, go to the bank, fax the order, then two weeks and a dozen calls later they finally admit they do not have what I ordered either. I try changing the order a dozen times, and each time they come back and report they did not have that either. I would say something approaching 50% of all computer components I have bought in Chile have either died, failed, or have some other problem with them, and I know what to look for in a computer component. What does the average joe do?

3. Education
Chile has a large literate population and overall fairly good coverage on the basic level, but higher education is lacking. Research is just now starting to be taught and emphasized. My wife is teaching research methods and introduction to critical thinking to 4th and 5th year law students that should have learned it at least in their first year or earlier. She more or less has unlimited job security with the Universities now that it has been made a requirement because there are almost no qualified professors that can teach it. They have been requiring a thesis for years, and no one has taught them how to write one or conduct research.

4. Services
We all know the problem with that. In general Chilean companies in the service industry treat service as a product. Like they were selling objects. They completly miss the point.

the population is what Chile has going for and against it. The population is small, so the problems are manageable, but on the other hand it is hard to really build rapidly in to some sort of industrial power house with such a small pool of talent to start with.

I think Chile's best move is to work towards being one of these countries where talent is out sourced to other countries. Kind of like those small middle eastern countries where almost no one from the country really does the work. This is all assuming Chile can become sufficiently rich some day to afford that, but something along those lines. Perhaps a super investment gateway to the rest of South America. It has the stability to do what other countries can not.

All of this though hinges on education. Chile needs to be devoting money and resources to its education system at all levels.