international
construction
may 2014
REGIONALREPORT: LATINAMERICA
22
Infrastructure emphasis
But as impressive as these figures are,
many would say that the region is not
investing enough in infrastructure.
One of these is FIIC president Juan
Ignacio Silva, who in his day-job is
executive chairman of one of Chile’s
oldest construction companies, Desco,
founded in 1938. Speaking to
iC
sister-
publication
Construction Latin America
(
CLA
), he cited development bank
reports to reinforce his views.
“I think you can and should strengthen
the regional economy by boosting
infrastructure. The IDB notes that to
sustain its growth, the region should
invest some US$ 200 billion each year,
and that is not happening. This is manifested in increasing
bottlenecks that raise the export of our products and make us
less competitive, or straight develop prevent certain activities.
“Governments have the primary responsibility to create
conditions topromote theseworks, bothwithdirect investment
and with systems to encourage private
funding.This iscriticalbecauseotherwise,
the last decade or so of poverty reduction
in our region could be reversed,” he said.
FIIC is broadly in favour of using PPPs
to help increase the amount invested
in infrastructure, but it is a relatively
new model in Latin America, and
according to Mr Silva, there is not yet
enough experience in the market about
what works best, and there are also key
differences betweendifferent countries in
how they administer PPPs.
“There are many variations of them
[PPPs] and they are used in various forms and to different
degrees of success in the region. There is no doubt that PPPs
bringprogress to countries, but there ismuch still todo.Within
the FIIC there is full cooperation between national Chambers
of Commerce to disseminate information regarding the various
regulations with which each country
operates,” saidMr Silva.
Urban transport
Economic growth and urbanisation in
many countries inLatinAmericaover the
last decade have put pressure on major
cities’ infrastructure. A common solution
has been investment in metro systems –
either in terms of expanding networks
that were first built in the 1970s, or in
the case of the Colombian, Panamanian
and Ecuadorian capitals of Bogotá,
Panama City and Quito, building their
counties’ firstmetro systems.
Construction
of Labrador
station on
Quito, Ecuador’s
metro system
and an artist’s
impression of the
finished structure.
FIIC president Juan Ignacio Silva.
>
