It´s the End of the World as We Know It…

It´s the End of the World as We Know It…

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

George Bernard Shaw

By: Erreh Svaia

It seems that 2016 is going to be another tough year for Latin America, due to a lesser appetite for raw materials in countries like China (the report economic growth of 6.9% but let’s not forget that in the case of China, they are not as transparent about this as one would wish) and the continuous fall in oil prices (which is continuing in alarming rate, starting to affect even rich countries like Saudi Arabia); These days, a couple of countries seem to be walking into the right direction in order to survive the continuous and growing crisis, diversification and education seem to be the clues, not for big growth perhaps, as it seems that the world growth is slowing down, without a doubt, but to keep small but constant growth as a way to survive and keep positive numbers in economy.

Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Panamá and Costa Rica seem to be developing a completely new routes from the previous one taken by the majority of the countries of the region, less based on the sale of oil and raw materials, it seems these countries will lead the way for the region, México learning the really hard way to back off on its dependency on the oil industry, taking advantage of the hard lessons received in the 70s, an approach that sunk todays apparent major players like Brazil and Venezuela, while Colombia and Peru depending less in commodities, like Argentina or Chile did and were seriously affected by China recession, while Panama an Costa Rica search for clean energies and innovation to stay afloat in the turbulent economic and financial environment.

For Latin America is the end of the world's crave for oil and raw materials, and in order to keep evolving the countries should also begging to immerse themselves into the economy of knowledge, learn from what's been happening in China, were cheap labor era is over and there is an increased need of qualified work force, it’s time to start leaving behind the concept of being competitive by providing cheap work force and start thinking in the future, cheap labor force won’t be the answer in the years to come, and it will perhaps become an even worse problem.

It won’t be long for the world to start accelerating technology evolution and for rudimentary works to start disappearing affecting jobs and employment, in a couple of years we will start looking how technological advance machines will build in less time, cars will be ensembles in an automatic way, cars and buses will require no drivers and 3D printers will change forever dress, furniture and toys industries, on the other side, experience as an asset will also start to become a thing of the past, as online information and automated algorithm will start making less and less necessary to have lots of experience, an open attitude toward constant learning and constant adaptation towards changes is going to become the norm.

These times requires and economy of knowledge, one based on highly prepared and highly productive work force in order not to do mechanical processes or rudimentary jobs, but to design, create and produce added value products first and the to grow world brands, evolution took millions of years, it´s not a matter of quick miracles.