{"id":520430,"date":"2010-04-08T11:36:34","date_gmt":"2010-04-08T15:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gereports.com\/?p=5731"},"modified":"2010-04-08T11:36:34","modified_gmt":"2010-04-08T15:36:34","slug":"keeping-growth-on-the-fast-track-wef-latin-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/520430","title":{"rendered":"Keeping growth on the fast track: WEF Latin America"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span>At yesterday\u2019s opening session of the World Economic Forum\u2019s Latin America summit<\/a>, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez <\/strong>was joined by Ferdinando \u201cNani\u201d Beccalli-Falco, President & CEO of GE International \u2013 who offered ideas on development as the region builds on its current economic successes. \u201cThese few things \u2013 they are \u2018motherhood and apple pie\u2019 as my American friends say — they are simple things,\u201d Nani told the audience. \u201cBut prosperity and success always come out of the simple things we can think of.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/GEREPORTS_WEBONLY>
\nA rebroadcast of the opening session is available above. Nani\u2019s remarks begin at the 46-minute mark. You can advance to that time by hitting the play button and then clicking the time bar running along the bottom of the video screen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne that is difficult to put in place as it is a long-term effort is education,\u201d Nani stressed to the business and government leaders gathered in Cartagena, Colombia. \u201cI travel to many countries and see many places. I can tell you that the places that flourish are the ones that have the two E\u2019s: The \u2018E\u2019 of Energy \u2013 and I\u2019m not talking about oil or gas \u2013 I\u2019m talking about the ability of lighting bulbs. And Education. You see the countries that have energy but no education go nowhere. And countries that have education but no energy don\u2019t go anywhere. The countries you see prospering are the ones that have both of these, heavily invested.\u201d<\/p>\n

Praising the major infrastructure projects currently underway in the region \u2013 including Colombia\u2019s current roadway construction projects, Nani said, \u201cWe see great investments in infrastructure\u2026. I think there are still big needs of power, big needs of water, for electricity, big needs for roads, for airports. These need to happen in order to bring these economies to the level where they belong and where they can prosper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nani observed that the between 1981 and 2007, the world experienced a phenomenal type of growth that had not been seen before, driven by the introduction of new technologies and the phenomenon of globalization. With hundreds of millions of people entering a new way of life in places such as China and India, the need for commodities exploded and Latin America was one of the regions that benefited as immense wealth was created in the process.<\/p>\n

But now is the time, he said, to diversify. Pointing to the Middle East as an example, he noted how the economies there are rapidly diversifying away from oil and into a range of other industries. Nani also underscored the need to ensure that old threats do not emerge, such as those of political and democratic instability, he said. \u201cAnother mistake is the return to protectionism, a return to high import duties, and a return to a taxation system that does not conform to taxation systems in other parts of the world,\u201d he said. \u201cTell me an economy in history that has prospered putting big import duties or taxation.\u201d<\/p>\n

To a round of applause, Nani said \u201cone other important point is the absolute elimination of corruption. Corruption is always a threat to development. Corruption leads to uncompetitive environments\u2026. I am appealing to governments to really fight this enemy. It is the enemy for economic development. Following up on corruption is the concept of governance: clean, well-constructed illuminated governments is very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more in these GE Reports stories:
\n* \u201cTaking a look at GE in Brazil during WEF Latin America<\/a>\u201d
\n* \u201cPutting flare gas on the firing line at the WEF in Davos<\/a>\u201d
\n* \u201cSwitching smart grids from \u2018demo\u2019 to \u2018deploy\u2019 at WEF<\/a>\u201d
\n* \u201cBrazil\u2019s turbines sweetly hum with sugar-based ethanol<\/a>\u201d
\n* \u201cThe sugar-land express: Brazil orders 50 locomotives<\/a>\u201d
\n* \u201cBrazil\u2019s new Azul airline inks $1B services deal with GE<\/a>\u201d
\n* \u201cGE wins $250 million offshore drilling contract in Brazil<\/a>\u201d
\n* \u201cBrazil boosts clean gas in the Amazon; wind in the East<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At yesterday\u2019s opening session of the World Economic Forum\u2019s Latin America summit, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez was joined by Ferdinando \u201cNani\u201d Beccalli-Falco, President & CEO of GE International \u2013 who offered ideas on development as the region builds on its current economic successes. \u201cThese few things \u2013 they are \u2018motherhood and apple pie\u2019 as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4069,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-520430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4069"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}