Chile offers global investors the opportunity of gains from a country that has
weathered the current global economic meltdown better than most countries. It is politically stable, resource rich and fiscally conservative and since 2003, I have been in and out of Chile several times. As a percentage of GDP, Chile is the most export-oriented country in the world and has growing trade ties to Asia. According to the Economist, the share of Chileans living in poverty fell from 38.6% in 1990 to 13.7% in 2006, and education, health care and pensions are now much more widely available...The national copper company, Codelco, controls more than 20% of the world's copper reserves. Chile’s national debt is only 4% of GDP, and its sovereign wealth fund tops $20 billion. In addition, Chile’s announced $4 billion economic stimulus package packs some punch, being equal to 3% of GDP. Chile is also a free trader with a quiver of free-trade agreements with countries such as the U.S., the European Union, China, Japan, Canada, and South Korea. Chile depends on exports for 43% of its GDP. Emerging markets (and developed markets) everywhere can learn from Chile's experience. Manage your resources responsibly, keep your politicians' crooked fingers out of the treasury, open your economy to the world, and reduce regulation, and you can not only insulate yourself from massive financial shocks, but position yourself to attract foreign capital and entrepreneurship as well as inspire it from within.
I am proud to call Chile home.
Posted via email from The Invisible Sand
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