MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile, darling of foreign investors in the region.

Chile figures ninth in the world ranking of countries best qualified for foreign invertors according to the US based consultants A. T. Kearney

Chile outstands in business environment and financial structure, but has limitations regarding staff capability and availability. In these two items Chile not only figures below the emerging Asian economies and East Europe but also behind direct competitors in Latinamerica such as Brazil, Mexico and Argentina

However, A.T. Kearney points out that Chile conducted a survey of English speaking personnel among its labor force and introduced English as a compulsory second language in high schools and college. But in this field China and India are far ahead.

Besides the Chilean market is relatively small and quiet distant from the main world economies.

On the bright side corporations value the political stability and telecommunications of Chile, plus the trade agreements with United States and the European Union which protect intellectual property.

Consultants A. T. Kearney and the Boston Consulting Group forecast that this year corporations will be moving budget service expenditures equivalent to 25 billion US dollars from developed economies to countries in the periphery in fields such as information technology, communications and accountancy. Next year the figure could reach 40 billion US dollars and in the coming ten years, between 2,5 and 3 million jobs will be moving from the US to countries attracting foreign investments.

Argentina figures 15 in the same ranking of foreign investment attractive countries with better financial structure and labor force availability.