MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Fitch ratings sees a decade of opportunities for construction industry in Latam
According to a new report issued by Fitch Ratings, the magnitude of investments in infrastructure during the next decade will provide unprecedented levels of opportunity for Latin American construction companies with the outlook for most companies in the industry being positive. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rules“Brazilian construction companies are poised to benefit the most from the high demand for their services within Latin America due to their size, expertise and geographic diversification throughout the region.”
Aug 18th, 2011 - 10:04 am - Link - Report abuse 0'It's good to hear that companies with this expertise exist in Brasil.
I look forward to them coming to the North East' - he says, in frustration.
LOL! Not quite the same scale but I have heard some very funny stories about handy men in Chile. It appears that anyone with their own screwdriver is qualified to repair anything!
Aug 18th, 2011 - 11:57 am - Link - Report abuse 0A couple of years back I was renting an apartment in BsAs and expressed my concern to the landlords about wires hanging out of the wall in the kitchen near the sink. I didn't know if they were live and wasn't prepared to experiment. They sent some chap (who looked about 14) with a hammer and some nails to investigate. He looked at it, scratched his head and disappeared for a couple of hours. Then he came back and proceeded to hammer and bang about in the kitchen before leading me away from my desk to show me the fruits of his labour. He had nailed - in several pieces - a piece of plastic over the offending wire. Job done! It was the worst piece of DIY I had ever seen, including my own poor efforts, but he was so proud of his work I felt compelled to smile and thank him.
@ 3 “I felt compelled to smile and thank him.” good woman hahaha lo atamos con alambre
Aug 18th, 2011 - 08:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Elaine,
Aug 19th, 2011 - 10:16 am - Link - Report abuse 0I too have this frustrated split of feelings when faced with the poor man in the street trying to earna living with his hands but without the tools, the education, the experience or the exposure to better methods.
a few men with a few hammer-heads can, and do, fashion hammers with scrap wood; they cut lengths of (concrete re-inforcing) steel with half a hacksaw blade and beat it with their new hammers into chisels. With a hammer, a chisel and a bicycle, a man can sell his labour as far afield as he can travel in a day.
A group of such men can be aggregated to build houses for richer people and, over time, develop specific skills - concrete, brick, plaster & paint. Job contractors emerge from the group and, lo and behold, a small company is formed which may, in the fullness of time, register and become part of the formal economy.
I have employed many such people as caseiros and 'builders' - helping the local economy - but if all they see is people weeding the pavements using hammer and chisel, they will continue to chisel out weeds until the paradigm shifts for them and a better method fixes itself in their society.
This is a 'stone-age' (iron age?) technology providing the cash to buy mobile phones and flat screen televisions. But stone-age chiselling of weeds keeps many people fed through their own efforts, whereas one Black & Decker strimmer takes the work from the poor and unskilled.
The 'bridge' is secondary and adult education, skills training, intermediate technologies, and a management/supervisory stratum that know how it works better elsewhere/abroad and who have the authority and funds to make it happen locally.
I have no problem with anyone trying to earn a living by legal means and his enthusiasm made up for his lack of skill. Besides, it wasn't my apartment and I had already decided to move because the old building had a really beautiful but noisy lift that kept me awake all night. There were only 13 apartments but quite a few of them seemed to be running a business that required clients to arrive and leave at 20 minute intervals. Hmmmm. Eventually, by way of another apartment where the neighbours had the most horrendous fights every night - I think it was foreplay - I found an apartment quiet enough to work and sleep in.
Aug 19th, 2011 - 11:21 am - Link - Report abuse 0“The 'bridge' is secondary and adult education, skills training, intermediate technologies, and a management/supervisory stratum that know how it works better elsewhere/abroad and who have the authority and funds to make it happen locally.”
How does one incentivise disadvantaged people to stay in education? I know of projects that educate younger children where it is the mothers that have to be encouraged to send their children to school every day. The promise that their children will receive a good meal is usually incentive enough. However, when a youth can make money or hang out with gang friends all day, what is the key to persuading them to stay in school if it is being funded by a charity? I would be interested to know your thoughts. : )
Hi, Elaine,
Aug 19th, 2011 - 06:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I have worked on comparative educational performances achieved by different countries, during my UK Unis. Education Liaison years.
The Report (below) is well researched and lays out the problems, the reasons, the achievements and the shortfalls.
Key bits are:
the huge disparity in performance between the North half of Brasil and the South half;
the high levels of non-completion of secondary education;
the politicization of the teaching profession;
the extremely low fraction of the education budget that reaches Secondary schools;
the very low quality of teaching;
the absence of embarrassing comparisons with countries at a similar state of development (India, China, South Africa, Russia);
and, of course –
the Balsa Familia, which (in part) trades financial support to poorer families for school ‘attendance’.
Unfortunately the Bolsa does not trade family financial support for pupil performance, daily attendance, or completion of primary and secondary education. Also, the link between education and social services money-handouts has been significantly weakened in recent years; they still get the money but without the original (FHK) demand for the quid quo pro. It has become more like the UK, where families live happily as part of a new dependency culture.
The Report is a bit long but is well worth close scrutiny:
Brazil: Encouraging Lessons from a Large Federal System (OECD, 2010) http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/52/33/46581300.pdf
Happy to talk further.
Geoff.
Hi Geoff,
Aug 21st, 2011 - 03:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Sorry for not replying sooner but I have a busy weekend here! Thanks very much for the information, I shall read it and come back to you.
Kind regards,
Elaine
#6 Spelling corrections:
Aug 21st, 2011 - 09:12 pm - Link - Report abuse 0FHK -> FHC
quid quo pro! -> quid pro quo
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