Latin America & Caribbean » Colombia » Buenaventura
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Buenaventura gatekeeper of the Pacific Rim |
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| Buenaventura is the gateway of Colombia to the Pacific Rim. All shipping goods between Colombia and the USA west coast, or China, Japan, Chile, Peru and Central America go through Buenaventura Port.
The problem is that they just go through. No added value is provided by Buenaventura. It is not enough to be the Logistic gateway. The city cannot live only on the benefits of the Port, when port activities have a tendency to substitute labor by capital and heavy automated machinery. The Port is not any more, as it has been in the past the ‘cow’ on which Buenaventura could live out of milk, cheese and meat. The port is a ‘horse’ Buenaventura has to use for its benefit to bear the goods they are able to produce to those Pacific Rim markets… and beyond. Buenaventura has to build up on the added value chains of those products that go by and be able to pin down and root as many of those added value industrial processes that now take place elsewhere because of lack of entrepreneurial and technical skills from Buenaventura Social Capital. Social Capital and Human Resources is a major (software) task for the future. Infrastructures (hardware) can help but cannot substitute. A second strategy is to coordinate with the Cauca Valley and Medellin as the 4 million inhabitants of that area can add up to the international economic presence of the 300.000 population weight of Buenaventura. Multiplying by ten the population/production capacity is to the benefit of both, but mainly for Buenaventura, if they know how to make the best of the gatekeeper role they can play. |
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