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Today the Economía y Negocios section of El Mercurio has a special report on China-Latin America business. It’s by the Grupo de Diarios de América, and the whole text is here, via Mexican site El Universal.
Source: El Universal http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/graficos/pdf11/china.pdf
Here is my translation of the beginning of the report (emphasis mine):
Latin America exports cheap raw materials, energy and food to China, and China exports technology products, finished goods, textiles and cooperation projects to Latin America. In the past decade, exports from the subcontinent (LatAm) to the economic giant (China) have increased 12 times, while imports have grown 8 times, according to the American Economic System (SELA).The trade exchange exceeds that with the US and neighboring countries.
Economic observers see this relationship progressing in a way that can be compared with relations with Japan between 1960 and 1990. Then, Japan’s technological development fueled economic growth and per capita income increased from 15% to 70% of the US per capita income.
“China has become a strategic partner for Latin America and the Caribbean, there are many opportunities to reach agreement on export and investment in mining, engineering, agriculture, infrastructure, science and technology,” said Alicia Barcena, Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
The country has already displaced the U.S. as the main trading partner for Brazil and Chile. In Venezuela, China outpaced Colombia and Brazil to become the top trading partner. Mexico’s case is special because although its products compete with Chinese exports to the United States and Canada, bilateral trade grew 2000% between 1990 and 2010. In other countries, progress is evident: Uruguay’s trade increased 40% between 2010 and so far this year, and Ecuador will sell 54% of its oil to the Asian giant.
The importance of China to the region is concentrated in high demand for primary products. To maintain its 8% annual growth rate, China’s demand for food, energy and materials will continue to rise. And Latin America provides these.
- The caption translates to: Clothing Industry. Generates 310,000 jobs in 8900 companies, although since the opening of the market to China, 400,000 jobs have been lost, and as a result of the triangulation have lost a lot of market share. Beginning on December 12, the big importers will be able to buy from China. For example, they will be able to buy sports outfits for $0.20 for 2 million units. Click here to see the rest of the graphic.
Source: El Universal http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/graficos/pdf11/china.pdf
If you’re at all interested in this topic, I highly recommend that you read the whole report!
This Wall Street Journal article, As China Goes, So Go Commodities, is the clearest explanation I’ve read about how trends in China’s economy might affect commodity prices.
You want to know where the global commodities markets are heading in the coming years? Then it’s probably best that you remember a single word: China.
Liam Pleven outlines three possible scenarios for China’s economic future and describes how these would affect the worldwide market for commodities like oil, copper, and soybeans. These three scenarios have huge implications for China-Latin America trade because Latin America is a major supplier to China, and this trade is a major component of Latin American economies. For example, Chile currently supplies 29% of China’s copper and this constitutes a very large percentage of Chile’s exports. When copper prices fluctuate, so does the dollar-peso exchange rate.
Source: The Wall Street Journal.
Here are the three forecast scenarios :
Full Speed Ahead
If China’s consumption of commodities continues to grow at the rate it has over the past 10 years, this is what the world would have to do to meet that demand in 2020, assuming that the rest of the world’s collective appetite doesn’t change at all:
[this would mean, among other things]
• Extract nearly three times as much new copper as the current annual production from Chile, which mines about four times as much as any other nation.
The Hard Landing
A growth rate of 4% to 6% would be a big leap forward for the U.S. economy and plenty of others. But not for China….
Demand for steel, copper and other industrial metals could drop significantly if China does stall, because those materials are heavily used in construction—which would be at risk from weakness in the Chinese real-estate market—and because China often accounts for some 40% of global demand for those materials. Coal demand could also tumble, she says, because the fuel is heavily used in China to generate power.
Slower but Steady
For many China watchers, including Barclays, the most probable scenario is an economy that keeps expanding strongly but at a less blistering pace, with annual GDP growth rates in the high single digits. That would mean continued upward pressure on most commodities prices, with some possibly rising substantially, but in most cases not the soaring prices that a red-hot economy would produce.
I took this photo at a wedding I attended in Beijing in 2009. I think it's an appropriate way to illustrate this rather technical post about Chinese economic trends because this is the real face of oil/gas/copper/soybean consumption. This wedding had mass amounts of meat (lamb but no pork since the bride's family is Huimin, part of a Muslim minority.) As China grows more prosperous, more people will be eating more meat and hosting ever-more-elaborate weddings.
Note: I’m curious to hear your feedback on this post because I am thinking about starting a whole new blog about China-Latin America relations, in both English and Spanish, perhaps in partnership with the small number of other people who blog about this emerging topic. Gracias!!
Thanks to a thoughtful recommendation from Elise Bauer, author Scott Seligman sent me a review copy of The Cultural Revolution Cookbook, which is available on Amazon.com.
I loved the book’s artful explanation of how disastrous government policy brought forth creative self-reliance.
For most Chinese who lived through the Cultural Revolution, the very idea of a history of eating during that cheerless decade sounds like an oxymoron. It was an era in which the traditional food culture of China – which, according to an old Chinese saying, is on a par with heaven – went into near-total eclipse. Shortages were the order of the day, and one was lucky to consume as many calories as one burned on any given day. The art of cooking, in the sense of a body of collected wisdom about ingredients, seasonings and preparation methods, was summarily abandoned and was, in fact, criticized as a capitalist remnant. People ate whatever they could get their hands on, and there was almost never enough to go around.
…
Most would think of their time in the countryside as a disastrous waste of a decade, but that view told only part of the story. The experience had also been formative, and they came back more mature and self-reliant. They came back with lifelong friendships, with skills they had never dreamed they would acquire and with a hunger for learning and improving their lots in life that would lead many to great achievements. And many came back with the knowledge of Chinese countryside cooking with its flavorful and wholesome recipes that would be with them for the rest of their lives. (9, 12)
The time I spent in China was infinitely more prosperous and harmonious than the Cultural Revolution, but I definitely sensed this influence. My friends and students were the sons and daughters of the Cultural Revolution generation, filled with the “hunger for learning and improving their lots in life.” And of course I tasted many of the dishes in this book in hole-in-the-wall restaurants and friends’ kitchens.
Here in Chile, I decided on the most obvious (and delicious!) way to review this cookbook: testing the recipes!
The first time I opened the book, I breezed through it all in one sitting, right before dinnertime. It made me so hungry! I wanted to see what I could make from what was already in my kitchen.
Scrambled Eggs and Tomato. The photos in The Cultural Revolution Cookbook make even the most humble recipe look like a delicacy, and this was no exception.
I ate this dish so many times in China, especially at the restaurant across the street from the front gate of our university in Jiaxing. I think it was the first dish I learned how to say: “fan xie chau dan.”
But I’d never made it myself. I was surprised to see that the recipe included several tablespoons of sugar. The combination of sugar, salt, and oil transformed these simple ingredients into a tasty memory from China.
Each recipe page has a quaint Cultural Revolution anecdote like this one, which accompanies the Scrambled Eggs and Tomato recipe.
I served the eggs and tomatoes alongside a warm and chicken-less version of Cold Sesame Noodles with Chicken: spaghetti, garlic, cilantro, cooking oil, crushed chili pepper (I used merkén, a Chilean spice that seems quite similar to Chinese chilies… a local touch!), soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil. All ingredients that I already had in my kitchen!
I positioned the plate on top of a book of essays on the future of China-Chile relations. I like how this picture communicates the dish’s trans-Pacific provenance.
A few days later, I made a Chinese “banquet” for four. This time I shopped for ingredients at the neighborhood fruit stand and butcher shop.
Inspired by the book’s recipe for Pork with Green and Red Pepper Shreds, I made a Xinjiang-style beef noodle soup with vegetables. I ended up adding tomatoes, beer, cumin, cilantro, and several other ingredients that were not in the recipe. It was quite tasty.
HINT: If you’re buying meat from a butcher, ask the butcher to cut it up for you. This saved me both time and the chore of scrubbing raw meat juice off my cutting boards. A win-win!
We also made cucumber salad, one of my all-time favorite Chinese restaurant dishes, and a second round of scrambled eggs with tomatoes, served with a really nice bottle of Carmenere that my parents left behind after a winery tour during their visit. A lovely finish to a lovely evening!
Overall, The Cultural Revolution Cookbook reminded me that Chinese cooking can be simple, inexpensive, unintimidating, and delicious. It does not require special trips to unfamiliar stores for ingredients you’ve never bought before. All you really need is fresh ingredients, simple kitchen supplies, and a healthy dose of China nostalgia.
All images from The Cultural Revolution Cookbook except for the shot of my plate of food with the Chilean and Chinese flags.
These days I give lots of speeches. In Spanish. A language that is not my mother tongue. A language that I speak fluently, without hesitation. But my accent reveals: I come from somewhere else.
On the way to an event, I thought of a comment by Rachel DeWoskin. Rachel’s first book, Foreign Babes in Beijing, is a memoir about her experience as the “bad girl” on a Chinese reality TV show in the 90s, and how the show mirrored her real life in Beijing. It was one of the first books I read about China.
Rachel DeWoskin. Image via www.racheldewoskin.com
I met her at her book signing at The Bookworm in Beijing when she had just published Repeat After Me, a novel about a young English teacher in New York who falls in love with a Chinese dissident.
During the book signing, Rachel described a Chinese friend, who once said:
“He has IS a successful career and a failed personality.” (see note below)
She saw this as a purer form of the English language. A native speaker is unlikely to say “He has is a successful career and a failed personality,” but is there really any better way to express this idea? Native speakers use cliches and lazy, context-based phrases, often without clarity.
The extra effort it takes to speak a non-native language can make the ideas resonate. And stick.
I notice this on airplanes in Chile, where I actually listen to the safety announcements in English because they don’t sound like the rushed, almost-automated announcements on American planes. I notice it when my German, Korean, Chinese, and Chilean clients talk to me in English. Of course a high level of fluency, decent pronunciation, and full understanding of the topic at hand are all helpful. But in any case, being a non-native speaker can add power to the message.
I am proud to give speeches in slightly stunted non-native Spanish. I am always learning new words (recently: vorágine, licitación, apalancamiento). I will continue to learn new words for the rest of my life.
At the end of my recent trip to Concepcion, our host Felipe Sepulveda, founder of Atrévete Hoy, made this video of me talking about my new business, to send an inspirational message to the aspiring entrepreneurs of the Región del Bio Bio and beyond. Listening to it makes me cringe a bit: Gah, I sound so American. Is that really how I talk?
But daring to open my mouth and speak imperfect Spanish and talk about imperfectly-formed ideas on stage has opened the door to so many opportunities. I encourage all of you to banish your doubts, grab a drink (it helps, I swear) and start talking!!
P.S. If you can’t see the video, click on the title of the post to watch it on my website, or click here to watch it directly on YouTube. Gracias!
Amended 11/22/11 following correspondence directly with Rachel DeWoskin. She commented, “what Anna actually said was ‘he IS a successful career and a failed personality,’ even wilder, I think.” This reminds me of the question I always get asked here in Chile, after explaining in Spanish that I am American and my work involves solar energy, China, and mining: “But I don’t understand, what are you?”
I recently wrote my first opinion column in Spanish, for the website of a Chilean human resources consultancy called Conexo.
I met Matías from Conexo when I spoke at the Meetup in Viña del Mar, and he wrote this nice piece about my talk.
He invited me to write an opinion column for his site. My article is called “Los cambios que ha traido La Generación Y, en el mundo laboral.
The original article is in Spanish. (Thanks Marcelo for your ideas and help with editing!) I back-translated it into English with some help from Google Translate. What follows is the English version.
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Leslie Forman is an American entrepreneur, who in just 27 years has traveled much of the world for her professional development.
She did her first studies at the University of California, Berkeley, then in 2005 through came to Chile to study at the Pontificia Universidad Católica. Then she traveled to China, where she lived four years, working in industries such as consulting, advertising, education and corporate social responsibility.
This year, she moved to Santiago to join a solar energy startup and be part of the government program, executed by Corfo “Start-Up Chile.” She also has served as a independent interpreter for Chinese, English and Spanish.
Generation Y (also called the “Millennials”) refers to the young people born between the late 70′s and mid 90′s. This generation is entering the workforce with different expectations than previous generations.
Marcelo Peralta, a project manager at a finance company in Chile, explains his personal point of view based on his work experience, especially in the last five years.
Generation Y has come to contribute positively to the twenty-first century job market. Characteristics that are worthy of admiration in this segment of the workforce are, for example, the familiarity with new technologies, the latest academic knowledge, openness of mind and thought, languages, etc. and these are positive contributions that are highly appreciated by companies in the modern world.
However, these same qualities could become disadvantages for businesses, particularly for the departments of Human Resources, because for they have become a difficult problem to address and solve. The latter is related to the behavior of Generation Y, whose independence and constant exposure to change, make hiring / resignations very frequent, with the consequent cost for companies.
Many times, the uncertainty of these young employees complicates the planning of more complex, long-term projects. And finally, there are cases in which the personalities associated with these professionals denote lack of commitment towards the company and / or employers.
I am part of Generation Y. I was born in San Francisco, California in 1984. I grew up in an atmosphere of infinite choice and constant feedback. I played water polo, soccer and other sports, with the support of professional coaches.
When I graduated from college in 2006, I entered a professional world that was very different than the environment I grew up in.
I’ve done many different jobs: I taught English classes at a university in China, did a corporate social responsibility internship in the Chamber of Commerce, wrote advertisements for a multinational company, worked in customer service for a software company, and more.
Opening the door of our hutong office in Beijing in 2009, as mom looks on. Is this what the new wave of careers looks like?
None of these jobs have given me the kind of feedback I remember from my experiences in sports. This situation is common among “Generation Y” at work.
I found a novel and simple idea to promote this kind of feedback in a groundbreaking book on the future of work. The book is called End Malaria and its sales raise funds for the prevention of malaria. The book has essays from more than 50 psychologists, entrepreneurs, designers and leading writers, collecting countless ideas to innovate the world of work.
The suggestion that most caught my attention was something very simple authored by Daniel H. Pink. Pink, has written four books about the changing world of work, including his latest creation, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. His essay is called “What’s the Matter With Milennials?”
Here is an excerpt from the essay (as it appeared in The Telegraph in 2010 under the headline “Think Tank: Fix the workplace, not the workers.”)
Kimley-Horn, a large American engineering firm, takes a peer-to-peer approach. At this sprawling 60-office company, anybody at any time can award a colleague a $50 (£31) bonus.
Instead of once-a-year acknowledgment from a boss who may not remember your heroic deeds, these modest bonuses allow colleagues to recognise good work instantly – and that, in turn, can create an environment in which feedback more regularly bursts through the dry sands of office life. Last year, Kimley-Horn employees gave each other nearly 2,000 of these on-the-spot bonuses.
A person’s supervisor must sign off on each award. But ultimately the decision rests with peers, not bosses – which can make the feedback and recognition more meaningful. As Kimley-Horn’s Julie Beauvais puts it, giving employees a way to acknowledge a co-worker “puts the feedback control in the hands of the folks who are closest to the activity”.
The $50 solution would not satisfy all the desires of Generation Y, but is a simple, practical, and economical way to provide more feedback in the office. And that feedback could make a difference.
I'm Leslie and I connect entrepreneurs in Chile, China, California, and beyond — especially through translation, training, and trade. More about me.
