Latin American notes

United Nations officer Wolfgang Gluschke, in a Miami conference paper on mineral investment promotion:

Most countries in Latin America have undergone considerable changes in the economic, social and political

approaches to development during the last few years.

They have adopted new investment and mining legislation and regulations, have liberalized foreign trade and exchange procedures, improved the conditions under which nationals of their countries participate in the productive sectors and opened their countries to the active involvement of foreign capital and technology.

State enterprises, including those in the mining sector, have been privatized or are in the process of being offered to national and international private investors. Several countries have started efforts to actively promote investment in their mining industry, though much more needs to be done . . . The mining sector is potentially one of the most important sectors in most of Latin America because of the region’s excellent resource development . . . — A trade conference focusing on Latin America, Expomin ’92, is scheduled for May 12-16 in Santiago, Chile. According to the advance literature, 800 suppliers from 35 countries will display their mining wares. — A Chilean government agency says that foreign investment in the country’s mining sector is slated to increase by 20% in 1992 to US$650 million. Codelco, the huge state-owned copper producer, turned out 1.2 million tons copper in 1991; Chile’s total copper production that year was 1.8 million tons.

— Regional stock markets have been among the best performers in the world as the impetus of the new economic policies have taken hold. For Latin American equities, 1991 was a banner year in which each of the region’s five major stock markets easily outperformed the International Finance Corp.’s emerging markets index.

This latter is a composite that tracks the performance of 20 stock markets in “transitional” economies worldwide. It is heavily weighted towards the emerging markets of South and East Asia which account for 73% of its value as against the 15.5% contributed by the five Latin American markets.