This article analyses the treatment accorded to foreign investment under the present development strategy. To this end, it looks at the recent dynamics of both direct and indirect foreign investment, including portfolio investment and quasi-equity operations, the latter with reference to contracts for the transfer of production know-how. For this purpose, the main resource flows and their directions are analysed, together with the changes which have taken place in corporate strategies. It is concluded that it is necessary to put together an explicit development strategy in which the main objec…
ECLAC has submitted an overall assessment of the economic reforms implemented during the past 15 years to the Governments of the region and, based on that assessment, a proposal for strengthening the development process. The central message that emerges from this analysis is that the region needs to work towards forming closer linkages among its macroeconomy, microeconomy and institutional structure by reinforcing the complementarities between macroeconomic and microeconomic sources of competitiveness and fortifying the institutional framework for the development of production activity. Withou…
This article defines the stages of development reached by industries that account for half of Brazil's total output and identifies the competitive challenges they face, including those associated with the country's industrial policy. Between 1980 and 1994, Brazilian industry experienced persistent macroeconomic instability as the country's trade liberalization efforts proceeded. By means of a series of adjustments, however, the sector did manage to adapt to this hostile environment; in fact, it not only survived but actually succeeded in maintaining its ability to help cover the…
This article analyses the interrelation between the macroeconomic framework and growth. After reviewing the recent macroeconomic environment, highlighting progress and shortcomings, it focuses on the implications of the existence of gaps between production capacity and its degree of utilization or effective demand; the way in which persistent disparities in this respect affect the speed of expansion of the production frontier is illustrated by examples from the 1980s and 1990s. It then reviews economic policies that affect the degree of proximity between the production frontier and effective d…