MasterCard WW Centers of Commerce Index: Santiago: The ideal city for entrepreneurs in Latin America
Publicado el: 17 de agosto de 2007
Source: www.mastercard.com
"Santiago has unique things to offer and it is the ideal city for people with entrepreneurial drive. Going to Chile is like going to Singapore; everything runs smoothly for investors." Such is the opinion on the Chilean capital expressed by the Dutch sociologist Saskia Sassen, expert in globalization and its impact on cities and in charge of the latest MasterCardīs Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index.
In the study, Santiago was ranked 39th, positioning itself as the main Latin American business center and outperforming other regional urban centers such as Mexico City and Sao Paulo, and even Rome and Beijing. In Sassenīs point of view, Professor at Columbia University and considered a leading world expert on the Information Society, Santiago is the best Latin American city to do business for foreign companies. "However, it is very important to specify which economic sector we're talking about," she says.
In her opinion, the most solid features of the Chilean capital are standards, guarantees and the speed at which everything gets done. "Overall management; one gets the impression that the system is well prepared to handle much more than what it is handling properly today." Regarding weaknesses, "although not necessarily negative, I don't think it is a place for great intellectual theories and creative innovation in terms of economy. You can hardly see or sense that," adds Sassen.
An index structure consisting of six dimensions was designed by a team of eight independent economic, urban development and social-science experts from leading academic and research institutions around the world. Each of these six dimensions in turn consists of a number of indicators, and each indicator is made up of a number of sub-indicators. All told, the Index involves six dimensions, 41 indicators and over 100 sub-indicators. In computing the data, the panel also determined the weight that should be given each of the six dimensions:
Legal and Political Framework (10%) - Degree to which legal and political frameworks enable the emergence of a Global Center of Commerce.
Economic Stability (10%) - Degree to which a Center of Commerce is handicapped by an unstable economic environment, currency, or unpredictable inflation.
Ease of Doing Business (20%) - Availability of quality, cost-competitive trade logistics; level of interconnectedness; and ability to attract and retain talent due to a high quality of living.
Financial Flow (22%) - Measurement of the city's actual output or financial achievement.
Business Center (22%) - Degree to which the city intermediates the flow of goods, services, people, finances and information, etc.
Knowledge Creation and Information Flow (16%) - Degree to which information flows freely and knowledge is generated.