Thinking Citizen Blog — Costa Rica — The Silicon Valley Of Latin America? (New York Times)
Thinking Citizen Blog — Tuesday is Economics, Finance, and Business Day
Today’s Topic: Costa Rica — the Silicon Valley of Latin America? (New York Times)
Is Costa Rica key to reducing US technological dependence on China? So argued Farah Stockman, last month in an op-ed piece in the New York Times, of which she is a member of the editorial board.
Did you know that “more than 40% of the chips the US Department of Defense uses for weapons systems and infrastructure rely on Chinese suppliers”? And that “more than 90% of advanced chips are produced in Taiwan”?
Costa Rica is a stable democracy with a “tech-oriented workforce” ever since Intel set up a factory in San Jose in the 1990s. “Today Costa Rica’s biggest export category is no longer coffee or bananas but medical devices.”
On the other hand, Intel shut its plant down in 2014 and did not re-open it until the chip shortages of the Covid era. And Costa Rica’s population is only 5 million.
Today, a few more excerpts from Stockman’s article as well as a little background on Costa Rica and Chinese investment in Latin America more generally. What do you know about Latin America or China that the rest of us probably don’t but should?
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
BACKGROUND — between Panama and Nicaragua, population: 5 million
1. “Following the brief Costa Rican Civil War in 1948, it permanently abolished its army in 1949, becoming one of only a few sovereign nations without a standing army.”
2. GDP Per Capita (nominal) is $18,031 versus $15,249 for Mexico, $11,352 for Brazil
3. “It has the 8th freest press according to the Press Freedom Index.”
NB: Parenthetically, Costa Rica is a “biodiversity hotspot” with 500,000 species of plants and animals. It is particularly “a bird watcher’s paradise” with 50 species of humming birds. Not to mention 200 volcanoes.
CHINA HAS BEEN ELBOWING THE US OUT OF ITS OWN BACKYARD — BUT AT A DECREASING RATE
1. As the US has shifted its focus to low cost labor in Asia, China has made significant inroads in Latin America.
2. China has “become the most important trade partner and investor in much of Latin America.”
3. “Twenty-two countries in the Western Hemisphere have signed onto China’s Belt and Road initiative.”
NB: “Chinese companies are building a deepwater port in Peru, a bridge across the Panama Canal and a deep space ground station in Argentina.”
“WELCOME TO COSTA RICA, A COUNTRY WHERE THOU SHALL NOT FACE RED TAPE” (President Rodrigo Chaves Robles, below)
1. “His audience — which included the US commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo; General Laura Richardson, the four-star who leads the US Southern Command; and top executives from Intel — enthusiastically applauded.”
2. “We need allies closer to home,” Ms. Raimondo told me.”
3. “She is in charge of doling out tens of billions in subsidies to bring the industry closer to home, an effort that is crucial to ensuring that Americans stay on the cutting edge of AI and other critical technologies for the future.”
NB: Rodrigo Chaves Robles has been in office since May 2022, having served as Minister of Finance from 2019 to 2020 under the presidency of Carlos Alvarado Quesada. Chaves holds a BS. MA, and PhD in agricultural economics from Ohio State University. He won election in 2022 by a vote of 53% to 47%. His opponent was the more progressive former President Jose Maria Figueres.
For background on Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and General Laura Richardson, see the last two links below.
Opinion | Is This the Silicon Valley of Latin America?
China Is Recalibrating Its Latin America Strategy
Rodrigo Chaves Robles — Wikipedia
José María Figueres — Wikipedia
Farah Stockman — The New York Times
Laura J. Richardson — Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Raimondo
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
THE LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY INTO FOURTEEN BOOK-LENGTH PDFs:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
YOUR TURN — Please share:
a.) the coolest thing you learned this week related to business, economics, finance.
b.) the coolest thing you learned in your life related to business, economics, finance.
c.) anything at all related to business, economics, finance.
d.) anything at all
