Latin America, a place full of opportunities.

By Ivan Alcocer (Mexico)

Thinking about Latin America or “America Latina” is thinking about a place full of opportunities. From Tijuana (Mexico) to “La Patagonia” (Argentina/Chile) is a rich territory in natural resources, culture, economics, and different factors which make of this region one with an enormous potential.

According to the World Bank, the Latin-America´s economics is third biggest in the world with 6,06 billions of Dollars (USD).  This is most based in secondary and tertiary economics. In the last years, there have been great advances in politics, economics and society, giving the chance to all the countries of this group of one accelerated development. Besides the region is the biggest food producing in the world, and it counts with innumerable natural resources and one of the biggest hydrocarbon reserves in the world.

The biggest economics in Latin-America is Brazil with a gross domestic product (GDP) of 2,02 billions of dollars (2009). In the world level is the number 9. This is included in the “BRIC” (Brazil, Russia, Indian, and China), this theory says that in the year of 2050 these countries (accompanying USA) will be the 5 biggest economics in the world. The good conditions of this country are clearly reflected in the facts that is going to be the host of the maximum football event of the world (Brazil 2014 World Cup) and the Olympic games (2016 Rio de Janeiro).

Countries like Mexico (second economy in the zone), Argentina (third) hold stable economics and strong consolidated companies in the region being part of the G-20.

The next are the growth forecasts according with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 2010 and 2011 in Latin-America:

                                  REAL GDP

                                 Forecasts

                         2008   2009    2010   2011

                         ==========================

Western Hemisphere        4,3    -1,8    4,0    4,0

South America and Mexico  4,3    -1,9    4,1    4,0

Brazil                    5,1    -0,2    5,5    4,1

Mexico                    1,5    -6,5    4,2    4,5

Argentina*                6,8     0,9    3,5    3,0

Colombia                  2,4     0,1    2,2    4,0

Venezuela                 4,8    -3,3   -2,6    0,4

Peru                      9,8     0,9    6,3    6,0

Chile                     3,7    -1,5    4,7    6,0

Ecuador                   7,2     0,4    2,5    2,3

Bolivia                   6,1     3,3    4,0    4,0

Uruguay                   8,5     2,9    5,7    3,9

Paraguay                  5,8    -4,5    5,3    5,0

But, what is making to Latin-America a place with very good forecasts? What advantages can it have comparing to others developing region economies? I consider that the answer of these questions is the lots of natural resources that owned the enormous hydrocarbon reserves and without hesitation at all the Spanish language.

It is well known that this region is majority Spanish speaker, (because most of the countries here used to be Spanish colonies), and that, definitely makes relationships among countries easier than in any other region of the world where every country has a different language.

For these and too many more reasons, Latin-America is without hesitation a place full of opportunities.