OPORTUNIDADES Y NEGOCIOS CHILE - SUIZA

With China’s sluggish economy taking most of its
Latin American trade partners down with it, nearly
every major economy in the region – including its
wealthiest, Chile – is either slowing down or
shrinking. This downward spiral effectively signals
the end of Latin America’s recent economic boom.
Cycles of boom and bust like the last one are hardly a
new phenomenon in Latin American economics. In
fact, they were a defining feature of the region’s
economic history throughout much of the 20th
century. However, the long overreliance on the
international price of commodities and raw
materials that has perpetuated these cycles is a key
barrier to real, sustainable growth in Latin America in
the 21st century and beyond. All countries in the
region are in desperate need of new ways to increase
their productivity.
HUMAN
CAPITAL IN CHILE
AN UNTAPPED NATURAL RESOURCE
Chile is no exception. Like most countries in the
region, Chile has vast reserves of natural
resources, and despite its attempts to diversify
its economy, its continued dependence on them
has kept the country vulnerable to fluctuations in
the global economy. The price of copper, Chile’s
main export, has plummeted in the past several
years as demand from the world’s biggest
consumer of the metal, China, has dropped. As a
result, Chile’s growth in 2014 was its slowest in
five years and the country has struggled to
rebound since, as investment stagnates and
consumer spending remains weak.
However, Chile may be better positioned than
most countries in Latin America to endure this
economic downturn. Not only has the country
benefited from strong institutional stability in
recent decades, it has also forged important
trade alliances with much of the world, and is
arguably one of the region’s most open and
investment-friendly economies.
But some of Chile’s best opportunities to boost
productivity may lie in accumulating human
capital and maximizing the talent and skills of its
existing workforce, which the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
identifies as major obstacles to improving
productivity at Chilean firms. In fact, the OECD
advises that more systematic investment in the
development of Chile’s human capital is
definitely in order. In this regard, Chile has strong
foundations that it can build from.
Access to education in the country is already
broader and better than average in Latin
America, which is a decided plus as Chile seeks
to improve its human capital. However, Chile’s
education system still needs more investment.
Chile’s workplaces continue to lack sufficient
quantities of well-trained workers with higher
education, which is exactly the type of advanced
human capital that these businesses rely on for
innovation and research and development.
Chileans themselves likely see the need for such
investment; Gallup surveys in 2014 showed that
the majority (51%) of residents are dissatisfied
with the educational system or the schools in
their communities.
Chile also stands to benefit from having one of
the most engaged workforces in Latin America,
according to Gallup’s studies of workers in the
region and around the world. Based on people’s
answers to questions that 30 years of Gallup
research finds best predict employee and
workgroup performance, Gallup categorizes
workers as engaged, not engaged or actively
disengaged. Nearly four in ten employed
Chileans (39%) are engaged at work, easily
outdistancing the regional average (29%).
…some of Chile’s best
opportunities to boost
productivity may lie in
accumulating human
capital and maximizing
the talent and skills of
its existing workforce...
Engaged Employees in Latin America and the
Caribbean, by Country:
Latin America & 29%
the Caribbean
Belize 42%
Panama 41%
Chile 39%
Jamaica 36%
Colombia 35%
Costa Rica 35%
Dominican Republic 35%
Puerto Rico 35%
Guatemala 34%
Bolivia 29%
Brazil 29%
Mexico 29%
Honduras 28%
Ecuador 27%
Uruguay 27%
El Salvador 24%
Argentina 23%
Nicaragua 23%
Peru 23%
Venezuela 17%
Paraguay 14%
50 CÁMARA CHILENO-SUIZA DE COMERCIO
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