The public debate about agrobiotechnology in Latin American countries: comparative study of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico

This study is about the public discourse on the introduction of biotechnology in agriculture in three Latin American countries, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. It aims at identifying the discoursive disputes to influence public opinion and thus to legitimize policy options regarding agrobiotechnology. Based on the assumption of the fundamental role of mass media in the public sphere of contemporary societies, the research draws on media analysis and the frame analysis of news articles to describe the political claims made by various actors attempting to frame shared meanings of GMOs. It addresse…

CEPAL Review Special Chinese Edition.

New trends in ICT

The advance of cloud computing

Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2011

In 2010 the Latin American and Caribbean region showed great resilience to the international financial crisis and became the world region with the fastest-growing flows of both inward and outward foreign direct investment (FDI). FDI inflows were up by 40% with respect to 2009 and stood at a total of USUS$ 113 billion. Outflows increased almost fourfold to reach an all-time high of USUS$ 43 billion, reflecting the strong growth of trans-Latin firms. The upswing in FDI in the region has occurred in a context in which developing countries in general have taken on a greater share in both inward an…

ICT and Agriculture

CEPAL Review no.105

Productivity growth in Latin American manufacturing: what role for international trade intensities?

This paper analyzes the relationship between the intensity of international trade flows and labor productivity for 28 industries in the five main economies in the region (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico) using the Arellano-Bond generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator. The results show that international trade flows contributed through various channels to labor productivity growth in the period 1990 to 2008. These channels, which have been developed in the theoretical literature, are export intensity (share of production exported), import penetration (share of domestic deman…

The top 20 multinationals in Chile in 2010: retail, forestry and transport lead the international expansion

This report presents the results of a survey of multinational enterprises (MNEs) from Chile, carried out by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment (VCC), a joint undertaking of Columbia Law School and The Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York. The survey, conducted in 2011, covers the period 2009-2010 and was undertaken in the framework of the Emerging Markets Global Players (EMGP) project, an initiative of the VCC that brings together researchers from leading instituti…

Growth versus development: different patterns of industrial growth in Latin America during the 'boom' years

Between 2003 and 2008 Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) experienced its most remarkable expansionary period since the 1970s. Yet, LAC countries' productivity gaps widened during this period vis-à-vis industrialized countries (here represented by the United States' manufacturing sector) as revealed in CEPAL (2010). The paper splits up this process and examines the different outcomes observed at the national level for the cases of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico during these boom years. It examines the composition of productivity divergence in terms of sec…

National innovation surveys in Latin America: empirical evidence and policy implications

The following articles provide the results of the analysis of innovation surveys in 5 Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay. Those countries account for the 80% of total regional manufacturing value added and offer a good proxy of regional manufacturing performance. The diversity and the heterogeneity of these countries allow to grasp eventual asymmetries in innovative conducts and National Innovation Systems between small and big size economies, different specialization patterns, low and medium income economies and to take into account potential differences be…

Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2010

In 2010 the Latin American and Caribbean region showed great resilience to the international financial crisis and became the world region with the fastest-growing flows of both inward and outward foreign direct investment (FDI). FDI inflows were up by 40% with respect to 2009 and stood at a total of USUS$ 113 billion. Outflows increased almost fourfold to reach an all-time high of USUS$ 43 billion, reflecting the strong growth of trans-Latin firms. The upswing in FDI in the region has occurred in a context in which developing countries in general have taken on a greater share in both inward an…

CEPAL Review no.103

The Outlook for Agriculture and Rural Development in the Americas: A Perspective on Latin America and the Caribbean 2011-2012

Just as the world economy was showing signs of a recovery, a new global recession and a financial crisis in Europe are looming on the horizon. The economies of the great majority of countries grew in 2010, albeit at different speeds. While growth in the most developed countries was sluggish and in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) averaged a little over 4%, the production of the developing economies rose by more than 6.5%, with China and India, the new engines of the world economy, leading the way. Paradoxically, the specter of recession has appeared when the global economy is also showing…

Information societies in Latin America and the Caribbean: development of techonologies and technologies for development

This book analyses the development of information societies in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, and provides input for public policy on information and communications technologies (ICT) issues.…

Monitoring of the Plan of Action eLAC2010: Advances and challenges of the information society in Latin America and the Caribbean

This monitoring report was prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC);, in its capacity as technical secretariat of eLAC, in collaboration with the Governments involved. Its objective is to highlight progress towards the goals identified in the Plan, identify the main areas in which the region lags behind the rest of the developed world, evaluate the position of each of the continent's countries, while at the same time bringing to light, whenever possible, the differences that exist within individual countries. The expectation is that this report will …

Compendium of practices on the implementation of ICT questions in households and businesses surveys in Latin America and the Caribbean 2010

The Compendium of practices on the implementation of information and communication technologies (ICT); questions in households and businesses surveys has been prepared by the Observatory for the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean (OSILAC);, in cooperation with the working group on ICT measurement of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of ECLAC with the following objectives: i); to collect and organize the main developments in the design and implementation of questions on access and use of ICT in the household and business surveys of the countries of the region, ii); …

Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2009

In 2009, the global economy experienced the fallout from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Given the decline in output and in international trade in the world's largest economies, sharply lower foreign direct investment (FDI) flows were to be expected, as was the subsequent toll on the installation of new production capacity and on the technological modernization of existing plant and equipment. In evaluating the consequences of these processes on inward and outward investment in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, this report focuses on thre…

Skill formation in Uruguay: what are the required labour qualifications for development?

At the global level, trade in services has been the most dynamic sector, with an average growth rate about double that in the primary and manufacturing sectors. However, the three activities have a completely different composition in terms of type of labour, services being the most skill-intensive. In Uruguay, the formation of human resources shows several weaknesses; which leads one to ask: Is Uruguay prepared to take advantage of the opportunities open in the global market? If not, what are the consequences? A simulation exercise was tried consisting of an increase in external demand for ski…

The Singapore success story: public-private alliance for investment attraction, innovation and export development

Singapore has been touted as a success story in the development literature.1 Various theories (Haggard and Kaufman, eds., 1992)2 have been offered to explain how and why the city-state has succeeded, but none of them has received unanimous approval. There is no debate on the success itself, what is at issue is how that success came about and how it has been sustained. For many it is a combination of the right policies and timing; for some, exploitation of a strategic position in the region; and for even others, a one-party dominant political system that allows for consistency in decision-maki…