Julio 2005
By L. Ronald Scheman
One of the key factors holding back Latin America's development has been the lack of access to the continent's interior. This has restricted its potentially huge exports in areas such as agriculture, energy and other
commodities. In "Greater America," L. Ronald Scheman explores why that is about to change.
Throughout history, access to natural resources has been one of the pillars of national power. Today, South America's natural resources are reshaping relations among the region's countries.
The low-cost access to natural resources is attracting industries to the
region.
The ability to join natural resource wealth to value-added industry is
positioning South America to become an important player in the global
economy of the 21st century.
Suddenly, the ability to join natural resource wealth to value-added
industry is positioning the region to become an important player in the
global economy of the 21st century.
Intra-regional trade is both the driving force and the benefactor of these
changes. New roads being built across the Andes will link the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans for truck and rail traffic - opening land for agricultural
production and opportunities for the poor to escape poverty.
This transformation will affect the countries of the interior - such as Bolivia and Paraguay - which will become the crossroads of hemispheric trade routes from Argentina and Brazil to Chile and Peru. Large oil and natural gas reserves provide abundant, cheap energy. Integrating a new grid
Of the world's total energy sources, Latin America and the Caribbean have
the largest share of renewable energy, 35% - whereas the industrialized
countries account for less than 2%. At present, 70% of the region's electric
power stems from renewable sources.
Instead of backwaters, countries such as Paraguay and Bolivia, as well as
Brazil's southern Mato Grosso, will become new transportation and production
hubs.
The Andean countries - Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela - will
never lack electric power-generating capacity.
Central America's hydro resources, which account for 65% of its energy
consumption, will become more important with the completion of the
integrated electric power grid being financed by the Inter-American
Development Bank.
Paraguay's main source of income is now the export of energy generated from
the huge Itapu and Yacyreta hydroelectric projects - 90% of which is
exported to Brazil and Argentina.
Compared with these projects' formidable generating capacity, Paraguay's
current tiny internal demand enables it to be one of the few countries in
the world that can finance its government without collecting income taxes.
Nonetheless, the abundance of natural resources has drawbacks. Historically,
resource-rich countries, especially landlocked countries, have lagged behind
resource-scarce countries in economic development.
The many reasons range from the narrow economic base of mining economies to
the concentration of wealth that enabled the elites to enjoy the good life -
without having to work to create a value-added industry.
Latin America and the Caribbean have the largest share of renewable energy
in the world, 35% - whereas the industrialized countries account for less
than 2%.
In addition, because of the debilitating tropical climates before the advent
of air conditioning, almost no industrial capacity could have been created
to produce value-added goods for global markets.
The mineral wealth of the Andes - gold, silver, iron, copper, zinc, tin,
manganese and other exotic metals - could fuel the global economy for
centuries.
The potential for growth is clear from the transportation and infrastructure
projects already being planned.
The Inter-American Development Bank is now studying 14 possible passes over
the Andes between Chile and Argentina.
A new highway for high-speed truck traffic will link Buenos Aires to São
Paulo. A master plan for transportation and energy for the Andean countries
was recently completed by the Andean Development Corporation.
Road and pipeline networks to handle intra-regional trade among the Mercosur
countries, crossing Paraguay and Bolivia, are almost complete.
As intraregional trade grows and trade routes cross the interior, they
unlock rich agricultural potential to produce for global markets - and the
inland countries will occupy a more strategic role in the economic
development of the region.
Newly privatized railroads are being modernized, providing intermodal
transportation corridors from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Argentina's Ferrosur Roca now allows direct rail shipment to Asia - with truck links to Valparaiso, Chile. Brazil is constructing one of the world's largest rail links, the 3,100-mile Ferronorte, to enable grain producers in the interior to reach global markets.
Trains on the pampas, which only a few years ago took days to travel 70
miles to ports on the Parana River, now can carry their grain cargo there in
hours.
The new road from Santa Cruz, Bolivia to Arica on the Pacific coast will
reroute traffic - which now has to travel by barge out through the Amazon - thereby reducing the cost of shipping soybeans by $40 a ton and the time to
reach Asian markets by half.
The controversial 2,200-mile waterway connecting the Paraguay and Parana
Rivers with the Rio de la Plata will, when completed, extend inexpensive
river transport from remote areas of Paraguay and Bolivia to the Atlantic
Ocean.
As a waterway, the impact of the hydrovia (literally, waterway) would be as
important to the development of the region as the Mississippi River is to
the United States.
The high-speed road from Buenos Aires to São Paulo could wake up sleepy
Montevideo, Uruguay.
However, its environmental impact remains controversial, as it poses a
threat to the Pantanal, one of the world's most extensive wetlands.But even the partial implementation currently under way will alter the
economic life of the region.
Opening the rich agricultural lands of the southern Mato Grosso, southeast
Bolivia and the Paraguay Chaco will create new sources of wealth, as barge
traffic reduces transportation costs for both fertilizer going in and grain
coming out.
Brazil's savannas - barren scrub only 20 years ago - with their new transportation routes, now produce 25% of Brazil's 80 million tons of grain, making Brazil the world's second-largest producer of soybeans after the United States. Bolivia's Santa Cruz region, at the foothills of the Andes, has risen inonly 10 years to become the sixth-largest soybean producer in the world.
This has attracted heavy investment from the world's principal
agro-industrial companies, including U.S. multinationals Cargill,
Continental Grain and Archer-Daniels-Midland.
The impact of the hydrovia would be as important to the development of the
region as the Mississippi River is to the United States.
More than a half-billion potentially productive acres in the Santa Cruz-Mato
Grosso region still have not been cultivated. With reasonable
transportation, the region's agricultural production could easily triple.
Barges will also facilitate the development of some of the world's richest
mineral deposits - such as the mammoth Matun iron ore deposits of southern
Bolivia - providing market access for these and other bulk commodities, like
lumber, limestone and petrochemicals.
Imports and exports from Latin America climbed so rapidly in the 1990s that the region topped Europe as the number two destination for U.S. containerized shipments.
The geopolitical impact of these changes will transform the continent in as yet unforeseen ways. For example, the high-speed road from Buenos Aires to São Paulo could wake up sleepy Montevideo, Uruguay, whose ports are deeper and feed more easily into southern Brazil and the rich lands of the interior.
Buenos Aires - historically the preferred port because it served the
extensive fertile lands of Argentina - will gradually cede part of its sea
traffic to ports on the north side of the La Plata River, which have cheaper
and quicker land transportation routes to Brazil.
The Andean countries - Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela - will
never lack electric power-generating capacity.
As a result of all this, 50 years from now, southern Latin America will not
look the same.
New roads will penetrate a now isolated interior and stretch from coast to
coast. The implications for the landlocked countries of Bolivia and Paraguay
are immense.
The historic trade routes of Latin America flowed from populations huddled
along the coast outward to Europe and North America, making the interior
countries marginal to Latin America's development.
In the 21st century, intra-regional trade grows and trade routes across the
interior will unlock these countries' rich agricultural potential to produce
for global markets.
Historically, resource-rich countries, especially landlocked countries, have
lagged behind resource-scarce countries in economic development.
In addition, the inland countries themselves also will occupy a far more
strategic role in the economic development of the region. Instead of backwaters, countries such as Paraguay and Bolivia - as well as
Brazil's southern Mato Grosso - will become new transportation and
production hubs.In that process, jobs, new living spaces and new economic opportunities will
be created throughout the region.
Adapted from "Greater America: A New Partnership for the Americas in the
21st Century" by L. Ronald Scheman. Copyright © 2003 New York University
Press.
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