Latin America and the Caribbean Have Great Potential for Strengthening their Economic and Cooperative Ties with China

Latin America and the Caribbean have great potential for improving their economic and cooperative ties with China, a country that has already become the region’s second-largest trading partner, according to a new ECLAC document presented during the visit made by President Xi Jinping to the headquarters of the United Nations Regional Commission in Santiago, Chile, on 22 November 2016. The report Economic Relations between Latin America and the Caribbean and China: Opportunities and Challenges (in Spanish) was presented by the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, Alicia Bárcena, at the Summit of Media …

Goods Exports from Latin America and the Caribbean Increase 20% in 2022, but Growth is Down from Previous Year

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) estimates the growth in the value of regional exports at 20% in 2022, driven by a 14% rise in prices and an expansion of 6% in exported volumes. These are the figures reported by the United Nations organization in its latest flagship annual report published today in a press release. In the report International Trade Outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean 2022, the Commission also indicates that the value of regional goods imports increased by 24%. Like exports, the bulk of the increase in regional import value is attribu…

Operational aspects of support programmes for the digital transformation of exporting small and medium-sized enterprises in the Republic of Korea

Because international trade is essential for the Republic of Korea’s economic growth and development, the government actively promotes exports by large companies and especially by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Several programmes support participation by SMEs in cross-border e-commerce, which may have contributed to their rapidly rising exports through this channel. This report reviews selected programmes implemented by the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME) and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA). To maximize the programmes’ impact, KOSME and KOTRA apply a circ…

A sub-national public-private strategic alliance for innovation and export development: the case of the Canadian province of Alberta's oil sands

The present paper addresses the Alberta oilfield experience and draws up a set of principles for strategic public-private alliances for innovation and export development considered useful for the Latin American countries. According to the authors the lessons to extract are not reduced to countries with abundant hydrocarbon resources, and may be also useful to broader applications as the development of innovation in resource based industries, the construction of strategic public-private alliances and consensus building, the royalty regime, the appropriate fiscal policy, securing investments in …

IT enabled services in the post-pandemic economy new opportunities for relations between India and Latin America

During the last few decades, India’s trade with the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries has grown substantially, especially in the area of Information Technology (IT) services. The definition of IT services now includes a plethora of IT-enabled services (ITeS) directed to specific sectors, including Agri-tech, Fin-tech, Health-tech, manufacturing and mining-based services, as well as e-commerce. This sector has attracted significant Indian investment in the region. Over the last decade, the share of the IT sector in total Indian Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the region has nearly…

Innovation and SME internationalization in Korea and Latin America and the Caribbean: Policy experiences and areas for cooperation

Economic relations between the Republic of Korea and Latin American and the Caribbean have expanded rapidly since 2000. Bilateral trade in goods increased more than fivefold, while the region has also become an important destination for Korean foreign direct investment. The region’s interest in Korea also stems from this country’s successful economic and social development experience, as it developed from being one of the poorest countries in the world to a high-income economy within less than six decades. To better understand the divergent trends in Korea and the region, this document reviews…

Regional integration and public policy. Evaluation of the European experience and possible implications for Latin American integration

Ciencia y tecnología en el Arco del Pacífico Latinoamericano: espacios para innovar y competir. Sexta reunión ministerial del foro del arco del pacífico latinoamericano

El objetivo del documento Ciencia y tecnología en el Arco del Pacífico Latinoamericano: espacios para innovar y competir es diagnosticar las capacidades de ciencia, tecnología e innovación, y su importancia para la competitividad, de los países que componen el Arco del Pacífico Latinoamericano (Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, México, Nicaragua, Panamá y Perú) —denominado como países del Arco en lo restante de este documento—, y la región de Asia-Pacífico, identificando espacios de cooperación internacional de transferencia tecnológica y de co…

Digital infrastructure for the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Republic of Korea

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for a significant share of the exports of the Republic of Korea, in large part thanks to the sophisticated digital support infrastructure available to these firms. This document analyses how the government implemented this infrastructure over the last decades in close coordination with the private sector. It also presents the prominent institutions and their digital SME export support instruments. Lastly, it identifies some future challenges and recommendations for Latin America and the Caribbean.…

Opportunities for convergence and regional cooperation: Unity Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean

En comparación con el período 2003-2007, que fue el más favorable de la economía mundial y regional en 40 años, el futuro presenta mayores desafíos. A principios de la próxima década, tanto la economía como el comercio internacional serán menos dinámicos, habrá mayores tensiones competitivas y presiones proteccionistas, así como más dificultades de acceso al financiamiento. El contexto global posterior a la crisis estará marcado por la desaceleración del crecimiento, las elevadas tasas de desempleo en las economías industrializadas y la necesidad de restaurar la sostenibilidad de las cuentas p…

Analysis of trade flows between Puerto Rico and CARICOM and prospects for integration

Puerto Rico and Caribbean Community (CARICOM); Caribbean countries share important common characteristics. They are open economies and while their trade specialization patterns are heterogenous, historical, institutional and geographical factors have shaped export and import linkages that are closely tied to those of the United States and Western Europe. CARICOM Caribbean economies and Puerto Rico also adopted, early on, a common approach to development, that of 'industrialisation by invitation'. Its main elements included fiscal incentives, the attraction of foreign direct investmen…

Module for the analysis of growth in international commerce (MAGIC Plus): user guide (updated)

The Module for the analysis of growth in international commerce (MAGIC) is a computer program created by the ECLAC subregional headquarters in Mexico for post-trade analysis of the competitiveness of countries’ exports to the United States market. The new version, MAGIC Plus, handles multiple windows or reports simultaneously, includes exports and imports up to 2010, generates different types of interactive graphics, allows easy administration of user profile options, enables the user to include, modify and eliminate groups of countries and features options to print, create graphics, generate …

Global value chains and world trade: Prospects and challenges for Latin America

Scant empirical evidence is available on how the Latin American and Caribbean region participates in global value chains (GVCs) and what drives this process. Frequent questions in this connection are: How has the spread of information and communications technologies and free trade agreements facilitated the region’s participation in GVCs? To what extent do small firms participate in GVCs? What learning mechanisms and production and technological feedbacks operate in different types of GVCs? How can countries and firms take advantage of upgrading processes in GVCs? What role do policies play to…

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…

Creative industries in the Caribbean: a new road for diversification and export growth

Creative industries have become a new engine of growth and development in the world economy. This dynamic sector, which ranges from traditional arts to multimedia, has been an important driver of innovation and productivity growth. The present study argues that the creative industries can become a pillar for economic diversification and export growth in the Caribbean. The study adds to the developing literature on the creative sector by evaluating export performance in the context of constraints as well as opportunities. The Caribbean creative sector possesses a number of advantages that are r…

Latin America’s faltering manufacturing competitiveness: What role for intermediate services?

This document contributes to the scarce empirical literature on the role of services as a source of manufacturing competitiveness in developing economies, providing evidence on the Latin American region. The 2018 release of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Trade in Value Added (TiVA) database is used to assess the servicification of manufacturing exports in seven Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru) between 2005 and 2015, in comparison with ten Asian emerging economies (eight ASEAN countries (Brunei Daruss…

Korean OFDI: investment strategies and corporate motivations for investing abroad

International flows of capital in the form of foreign direct investment have become an important means of promoting economic development in many countries. The spread of globalization and the activity of transnational corporations have been driving forces behind these flows have already been adequately analyzed. An important new phenomenon of recent decades is the rapid increase in the outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) flows from developing countries. Much less attention has been paid to outward investment by developing countries, mainly because it was negligible until recently.OFDI fro…

Technological change and opportunities for development as a moving target

This article puts forward an interpretation of development as a process of accumulation of technological and social capabilities dependent upon taking advantage of successive and different windows of opportunity. These windows are determined from the core countries, through the technological revolutions which occur every half-century and the four phases of their deployment. The possibilities of progressing at each opportunity depend on the achievements made in the previous phase, on identifying the nature of the next one, understanding the techno-economic paradigm of the revolution in question…

Secretaria Ejecutiva de la CEPAL expondrá sobre la situación de la región en el Foro Económico Mundial 2017

La Secretaria Ejecutiva de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), Alicia Bárcena, participará esta semana en diversas sesiones del Foro Económico Mundial 2017, en las que abordará temas como las relaciones comerciales entre América Latina y el Caribe y China, la estrategia regional para alcanzar los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) y los desafíos que enfrentan los países de la región en materia de productividad y gobernanza de los recursos naturales, por nombrar algunos. El encuentro anual del Foro Económico Mundial (WEF, por sus siglas en inglés) tendrá lugar …

Digital transformation of SMEs for cross-border trade and e-commerce in the Republic of Korea: insights for Latin America and the Caribbean

The rapid evolution of digital technologies has reshaped global business, forcing not only large but also small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to embrace digital trade. Nevertheless, many SMEs are struggling to fully implement digital technologies. Against this backdrop, the Republic of Korea has bolstered its support for SMEs, with a focus on human capital development, financing, and research and development. Furthermore, the country has revised its trade regulations and frameworks, placing significant emphasis on digital capacity-building and the alignment of regulations with internatio…