Chile Forum

Hi guys,

There's been a lot of speculation of Chile being the next japan or south korea, do you think chileans have the ambitions and does Chile have what it takes to rise above to be a great power...
Looking forward for the Chile brand names

I believe that Chile has the potential to become a force like Ireland. That is Why I am looking here for opportunity here. I certainly hope that Chile does not fall into the keynsian financial trap like the rest of the world. That Chile has a relativly small foreign debt, and is a net exporting nation situates it well for financial growth. My hope is that the monitary policies remain canservative. Real wealth is much better than inflated bubbles.
-Gene

Hola,

Chile has advantages like a younger populace...but it lacked the homogenous cultures like japan and a bigger and higher educated workforce that's able to take on big powers..wonder what kind of economic model that Chile will take to bring prosperity to herself and her neighbours?
Chile also need to define and export her culture to attract tourism and increase her media clout, that takes cultural elites and time to work this out..Maybe Santiago Kabuki nightlife:) to please the night cats
Chile is more hospitable compared to japan to foreign residents from what I heard and is a great strength to attract and retain talented people too.

Public education is still the problem in Chile. Very bad.

Also, lack of English language capability.

And is there enough people to have a high-tech product producing economy?

Quality control is not a standard business trait. Customer service, well ...

Computers subject to the IVA tax making them extremely expensive for the middle and lower class.

Internet connectivity to the outside world sux (see admin's posts on this issue}.

ENERGY!!

Chile has something very much more valuable than high tech. Chile has the ability to export commodities (hopefully with work added to increase value). This is something everyone needs for basic life. If the country focuses on their capabilities and not try to force unnatural fits, they can excell. My comments are generally focused on the strengths of the country. not any certain sector.

Education is paramount in an country for improvement.

Energy is what I hope to focus on if I come there. Chile has great potential to become close to self sustaing in this. This can also be done in a fairly environmentally neutral way. Chile has an opportunity to progress in this way simply because it is currently underdeveloped allowing it to get it more correct as it is growing.

Trying to acheive self sustainabaility allows a country more latitudes on their trade and monitary policies than a nation which is hostage to foreign interests.

Gene...........

One thing that's bugging me is does billingual education system benefits more than a monolingual one?

If chile decides to follow Singapore model of having 2 languages in school, except for a minority. most students language capabilties will be neither here nor there in both english and their mother tongue.
And as all of you know, having a substandard English and Spanish is worse than being proficient in either language.There's no simple solution

I was told some few years ago that the goal was to make Chile more proficient in English than in Spanish, believe it or not. That could, of course, have been the memoria amarga of one no longer on the national scene; or I could (particularly given my incomplete proficiency in Spanish, especially at the time) have been too gullible. Certainly, too, the crumbling of American dominance well could change that goal, even if English remains (because of its huge vocabulary and supple, subtle grammar and syntax) the most obvious choice for an international language. So, then: I really don't know.

But I do agree with Asean that bilingual education has proven a notable failure for populaces at large.

Asean wrote:. . . Chile . . . lack[s] the homogenous cultures like japan . . . .

From occasional exposure to much of Chile and brief exposures to Japan, plus acquaintance with both Chilean and Japanese folk, I wouldn't agree. True, Chile has its minorities (so does Japan), some of whom jealously maintain old ways; but there is more basic homogeneity to the country than a casual observer might think. Indeed, the comparative lack of racism in Chile delights me -- I see racism as one of the thorniest of American problems (to say nothing of racism in Japan) -- regardless of whether that be attributed to the great majority of Chileans' being mestizo or to other causes, and, I think, contributes to Chile's successes.

Of course, Chile does have serious problems that must be resolved for broad, sustainable economic betterment. EE.UU. has succinctly highlit several.

Actually I see the US as the next Japan. As our industry is exported and the traditional security of a "job for life" model destroyed, our economy is looking just as fragile.

I think there is alot of ambition in chile and alot of hard working people. As far as being the next Japan well , time will tell how far it can get. One thing I noticed is that there are people that speak perfect english and are well educated and learned it at the University. Chile is growing and has alot of tourism and its just going to grow more.

I have seriuos doubts, probably Chile never will follow Japan steps, we lack on many ingredients from so called "japanese miracle".
First than all, we lack the ambition, we never saw ourselves as an empire (Japan WAS in fact an empire), we have a very different kind of ambition, our role model is Switzerland instead Japan: small, self sufficient, and whealty

If Chile would only listen, as I've stated in previous posts: secular bull markets in commodities only occur every 30-35 years or so. That means Chile has maybe five-six-seven years left in the current run to make the most of it and transition from being primarily a primary commodity producer to more manufacturing and high-tech. Can Chile wait till 2035-2040 if she fails to make a successful transition this round?

Of course this analysis would be made invalid if the current world economic system which is mostly geared against the developing countries is overturned.

eeuunikkeiexpat, could you elaborate more on specific high-tech ventures which you would have Chile undertake?

Thanks,..............Gene.......

I think Tom Brad is a better source to ask for this.

Obviously something based on strengths Chile already has. If they were able to do state of the art Mirage jet upgrades for various countries, a base to expand from must be there. Also their close trade relations with powerhouse Brasil needs to be maximized.

Their reliance on MS as their operating system sux IMO (see the LINUX, UNIX threads by admin, TomBrad and others).

Right now Chile manufacturing is based mainly on processing a primary commodity product - copper cathodes, cellulose, fish meal, canned fruits, veggies, seafood, etc.

Aside personal observations:
I have a fridge from Chile brand Mademsa that boasts made in Chile but using Japanese technology (FWIW) which I believe recently received an A electric efficiency rating under new gov labeling rules. Also like my state-of-the-art stainless steel pressure cooker from Chilean brand Marmicoc.

Agree, there are many niches in which Chile can develop profitable techology, some of them are going now. As EEUU said mainly related with the area in which Chile has competitive advantages.

Minning, Chile leads many cooper technologies in a broad field such as extracting process, geology, metallurgy and industrial process, use of bacterias to obtain cooper (biolixiviation) innovative electro-obtention, closed circuit water processes, etc are very strongly developed here in north

Agriculture, biology agro industrial, etc. In sum Chile cannot take quantum leaps in science nor dream to become a country whose wealth comes from patents, we have not the size to defend our rigths internationally, that was clear when Cardoen developed a very successful industry on weapons and was swept with a single slam of Uncle Sam. But we can develos first class technology related with our comodities, adding value