Latin America and the Caribbean in the World Economy 2014: Regional integration and value chains in a challenging external environment

The 2014 edition of Latin America and the Caribbean in the World Economy: Regional integration and value chains amid challenging external conditions has four chapters. Chapter I examines the main features of the international context and their repercussions for world and regional trade. Chapter II looks at Latin American and Caribbean participation in global value chains and confirms that the region, with the exception of Mexico and Central America, has only limited linkages with the three major regional value chains of Asia, Europe and North America. This chapter also looks at how participation in value chains may contribute to more inclusive structural change, by analysing three core microeconomic aspects. Chapter III identifies various spheres in which regional integration and cooperation can help strengthen production integration between the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean. The fourth chapter explores the intra- and extraregional trade relations of the countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and considers how to strengthen production integration in the subregion by taking advantage of linkages beyond trade and building on commercial and production complementarities among the members. The chapter also reviews the differences between the countries in terms of income, population and production and export structure, in a context of marked macroeconomic vulnerability.

Latin America and the Caribbean in the World Economy 2011-2012: Continuing crisis in the centre and new opportunities for developing economies

Includes bibliography

Structural change and productivity growth, 20 years later: old problems, new opportunities

Includes bibliography

Status and potential of commercial bioprospecting activities in Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Technological maturity in the world petrochemical industry

Includes bibliography

Globalization and the new international trade environment

Includes bibliography

Structural change and productivity growth 20 years later: old problems, new opportunities. Summary

Includes bibliography

Development Paths In The Caribbean

This study analyzes the patterns of development in the Caribbean and gives particular focus to the challenges to and opportunities for sustainable development. The study is divided into two parts. The first part of the study examines trajectories for development in the Caribbean, while the second addresses the relationship between competition and integration.1 The significant development gains attained since independence have been threatened in the last decade. Slowing productivity growth, rising debt, increasing crime and social dislocation in recent years have adversely affected growth in per capita income and social welfare. The study therefore calls on policy makers to promote dynamic drivers of growth and development in the region. The key requirement in this regard, is the need to strengthen import productivity,2 or the efficiency with which the region uses foreign exchange. This can be done by producing and exporting more high-value services such as education and the output of the creative industries. The sub-region also needs to strengthen its systems of governance by providing more opportunities for citizens to participate in decision making. In addition, the region needs to address the inherent relationship between competition and integration by developing improved systems to cushion the negative impacts on weaker members of the integration arrangement. These could include a more robust development fund and capacity building to enable losers to benefit from regional trade and investment. However, regional integration should provide a platform for moving up the value chain, through research and development and innovation to produce more competitive exports.

Tourism in the Caribbean: competitiveness, upgrading, linkages and the role of public private partnerships (PPP) and public policy

The main purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze the contributions that publicprivate partnerships and public policy have made in the development of tourism in the Caribbean as tools for enhancing competitiveness in the Caribbean tourism industry. The paper explores these contributions mainly in the context of the upgrading strategies that Caribbean countries have pursued over the past 15 years or so and using the lens of the tourism value chain and tourism cluster approach. The paper also analyzes the potential roles that public-private partnerships and public policy will continue to play in the future especially in the process of building linkages between the tourism sector and other sectors in order to increase net benefits from tourism to the Region. This paper is divided into five sections. In Section I, we define public-private partnerships (PPP) and describe the areas in tourism where PPP are most widely used, the tools used to implement PPP in tourism and the various forms of PPP. Economic arguments are then laid to motivate PPP as a determinant of tourism competitiveness using the tourism value-chain and tourism cluster approach. Specific case examples illustrating the contributions of PPP and public policy towards increasing tourism competitiveness are provided at a regional level and for specific areas in Sections II and III respectively. Section IV summarizes findings from the previous two sections and discusses ways to enhance the effectiveness of PPP and public policy in Caribbean tourism for increased competitiveness. Section V analyzes a few of the challenges that the Caribbean tourism sector is facing. The final section proposes new areas of intervention for PPP and public policy as tools for enhancing competitiveness in the Caribbean tourism sector in order to assist the region in addressing these challenges.

Tourism in the Caribbean: competitiveness, upgrading, linkages and the role of public private partnerships (PPP) and public policy

The main purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze the contributions that publicprivate partnerships and public policy have made in the development of tourism in the Caribbean as tools for enhancing competitiveness in the Caribbean tourism industry. The paper explores these contributions mainly in the context of the upgrading strategies that Caribbean countries have pursued over the past 15 years or so and using the lens of the tourism value chain and tourism cluster approach. The paper also analyzes the potential roles that public-private partnerships and public policy will continue to play in the future especially in the process of building linkages between the tourism sector and other sectors in order to increase net benefits from tourism to the Region. This paper is divided into five sections. In Section I, we define public-private partnerships (PPP) and describe the areas in tourism where PPP are most widely used, the tools used to implement PPP in tourism and the various forms of PPP. Economic arguments are then laid to motivate PPP as a determinant of tourism competitiveness using the tourism value-chain and tourism cluster approach. Specific case examples illustrating the contributions of PPP and public policy towards increasing tourism competitiveness are provided at a regional level and for specific areas in Sections II and III respectively. Section IV summarizes findings from the previous two sections and discusses ways to enhance the effectiveness of PPP and public policy in Caribbean tourism for increased competitiveness. Section V analyzes a few of the challenges that the Caribbean tourism sector is facing. The final section proposes new areas of intervention for PPP and public policy as tools for enhancing competitiveness in the Caribbean tourism sector in order to assist the region in addressing these challenges.

Innovation and internationalization of Latin American services

Innovation and internationalization in services are key drivers of structural transformation, productivity growth and overall economic performance in Latin America. The services sector accounts for two thirds of the region’s GDP and provides over 60% of its employment. These shares are higher than in other developing regions, but still lower than in countries with higher levels of per capita income. The spread of information and communication technologies in Latin America over the past three decades has vastly enhanced both the tradability of services and the sector’s propensity to innovate. Long considered unrelated processes, both internationalization and innovation are today widely recognized as key and complementary sources of firm-level competitiveness and human capital enhancement. The advent of many novel types of business and consumer services is furthermore a key factor in the rising insertion of Latin American firms in regional and global value chains and transnational production networks, which are now the predominant form of organization of international production and trade. This volume explores three different levels of interaction between internationalization and innovation in the services sector in Latin America. Part I analyses the role of services in manufacturing and other sectors’ global value chains from a theoretical perspective, drawing on the experiences of Brazil and Mexico. Part II reviews innovation and internationalization policies and their effects on the performance of the services sector. Part III presents a series of case studies on innovation and internationalization linkages in Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica and Mexico. The book concludes that, in order for Latin American countries and firms to upgrade into services value chains, public and private initiatives must generate a host of regional public goods —enhanced investment climates, supply of skills, greater access to finance, improved protection of intellectual property, better value appropriation, enhanced efforts at standardization and quality certification— to strengthen the links between innovation and internationalization.

Quality of Latin American and Caribbean industrialization and integration into the global economy

Includes bibliography