UNCTAD and the OECD Development Centre are joining forces to review policies for productive transformation in Chile. The Productive Transformation Policy Review of Chile will be launched in November 2017.
The Chilean economy is facing strong headwinds after a three-year decline in copper prices; mining companies are reducing output in the face of lower prices leading to a drop in industrial production and reduction in government spending. This is generating a renewed attention in the country to opportunities for production and export diversification.
In light of these critical development and transformation challenges, the first joint fact-finding mission to assess Chile's regulatory and policy framework has been undertaken by the Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and UNCTAD.
"In the current scenario, industrial and transformation policies go beyond national borders as global challenges call for international coordination among different stakeholders. Their design and implementation thereforeican benefit significantly from policy dialogue between countries," Piergiuseppe Fortunato, UNCTAD Economic Affairs Officer said. "This ground-breaking review of the economic policies of Chile benefits from just such an approach."
Several stakeholders from the private and public sectors were interviewed and fruitful discussions took place with the local partner, the Chilean economic development agency (CORFO), Mr. Fortunato said.
The final result will be the publication of the first Production Transformation Policy Review (PTPR), a policy assessment and guidance tool developed by the OECD, UNCTAD and other partner organizations and participant countries, led by Costa Rica, Turkey and Uruguay, as part of the OECD's Initiative on Global Value Chains, Production Transformation and Development.
The PTPR of Chile, to be released in November 2017, will benefit from the support of partner organizations (the International Development Bank and ECLAC), a local team composed of government stakeholders and country experts, and international peers coming from Germany, Italy and Sweden.
A PTPR is carried out at the request of the target country and assess its readiness and potential for change, taking into account its specific circumstances and using international benchmarks.
The review aims to provide a guiding framework to identify options and actionable policy responses to promote structural transformation and upgrading based on comparative assessment of a country's assets, potential and priorities.
"The review also aims to increase collective knowledge about the variety of development trajectories and patterns, and on development narratives, based on in-depth review of the country's experiences," Mr. Fortunato added.
PTPRs operate on a five pillar framework which takes into account those features identified as distinctive in explaining the capacity of economic systems to be successful in the current economic landscape:
- The capacity to be forward-looking
- The capacity to being flexible and react to changing circumstances
- The capacity to activate learning dynamics and to engender self-discovery processes
- The capacity to deal with increasingly complex networks
- The capacity to create resilient linkages and create/retain value
The OECD Initiative on Global Value Chains, Production Transformation and Development is a platform for knowledge sharing and creation, which gathers together countries to discuss on an equal footing the challenges and policy options for production transformation. It counts on the participation of 20 countries and an Advisory Board of Experts from eight international organizations, including the Economic Commissions of Africa (ECA) and Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the International Labour Organization (ILO), UNCTAD, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
