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Article: Hand in hand: cash-strapped governments and gun-shy investors look for ways to collaborate on Latin America's serious infrastructure needs.(TRADE INFRASTRUCTURE)
- Article from:
- Revista Latin Trade
- Article date:
- August 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Freedom Magazines, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Just as the privatization boom peaked in Latin America in the late 1990s--by World Bank figures the region led the world in selling off state-run assets, averaging US$26.55 billion a year from 1990 through 2003--the subsequent collapse was nearly as staggering, both for investors and for the ordinary people around the region in need of clean water, working telephones and paved roads.
The impact is still being felt in countries like Bolivia and Argentina, where governments have faltered under the strain of explaining mismanagement and outright theft, although the biggest sin is most likely poor management of expectations: Private money was touted as a risk-free, ...