INTERGEST WORKSHOP IN SÃO PAULO
There is no doubt that the world is currently undergoing rapid change: Russia will not be available as a sales market for a longer period of time, China seems to be caught in a corona lockdown and has considerable structural problems, meanwhile energy prices are exploding and it has become virtually impossible to make a serious forecast for the economic development of the coming years.
With this in mind, I invited our Latin American partners on behalf of InterGest Worldwide to an internal workshop in São Paulo from 22-24 June 2022 to discuss the importance and development of this region. InterGest partners from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Panama worked with me to identify the special features and commonalities of the Latin American market and the associated opportunities for the future.
All the details of our two-day workshop would go beyond the scope of a newsletter, but everyone agreed on the broad line: the importance of Latin America needs to be completely redefined for the export industry as well as for production.
Brazil, for example, has long been a growing market for renewable energies and a hotspot for young start-up companies from the technology sector that want to tap into the country's high HR potential. Moreover, the Bolsonaro era could be history in the autumn and his opponent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva could find his way back into the office of Brazilian president.
Argentina has also developed positively in recent years and is known for its well-educated young people, who - as in Brazil - are highly sought after, especially by technology companies. Argentina is also characterised by a very low cost of living. Here it is worth comparing geographical distance (and the associated logistics costs) on the one hand and wage costs, e.g. in production, on the other.
Chile, on the other hand, elected Gabriel Boric, an ambitious environmentalist, as president after the change of government in March 2022, and he has declared the expansion of renewable energies to be one of his most important projects. Here, too, new perspectives are opening up for companies in this sector from all over the world.
The position of Mexico has been and will be of central importance for Latin America, which will certainly intensify in the medium term, as car manufacturers and the supplier industry in particular - in view of world political events - are shifting their focus back to the West. In addition, the newly established NAFTA agreement "USMCA" (USA-Mexico-Canada) celebrated its 2-year anniversary on 01 July 2022 and Mexico is not surprisingly a big winner, as today automotive imports from Mexico account for 36% of the total volume in the USA.
None of our InterGest partners wanted to go as far as claiming that Latin America will become the "better East Asia" in the future. But there was absolute agreement that the region is on the verge of a promising new beginning!
If you have any questions, we are - as always - at your disposal at any time.
Sincerely,
Your
Prof. Peter Anterist
P.S. In the coming year 2023, InterGest will expand its presence to Colombia, Peru and Uruguay. We shall keep you posted.
