segunda-feira, outubro 18, 2004

O que Botswana tem?

A coluna do Gaspari de ontem chamou a atenção para um recente estudo (destes de "rankings") no qual o Brasil estava atrás de Botswana. E, claro, muito brasileiro não gostou (já o povo de Botswana...).

Por que Botswana está na frente? E em que? Bem, a matéria é esta: Hispanic American Center for Economic Research - Latin America should follow Botswana's lead e um bom trecho é este:

Botswana's secret: It has not made sharp political U-turns or changed the rules of the game for domestic and foreign investors. The absence of uncertainty encourages investment.

When I called Augusto Lopez-Claros, the WEF's chief economist, to ask whether there was a mistake in the ranking of Botswana, Tunisia and most Eastern European countries ahead of Latin America's biggest economies, he stood firmly by his study's findings.

Lopez-Claros said that in his survey the business community in Botswana complained much less than those of Mexico, Brazil or Argentina about such issues as the quality of public institutions, the evenhandedness of the government in its dealings with private firms or the incidence of crime in the cost of doing business. In other words, Botswana is offering a better business climate than all Latin American countries, except Chile.

My conclusion: Perhaps Latin America shouldn't only think about whether to get preferential access to the U.S. and European markets, but also about how to create the right conditions to attract domestic and foreign investments. Otherwise, free-trade deals won't be of much use.