彼得·德本周发回的报道是关于南美洲的一个国家，它被许多邻国看作是整个拉丁美洲大陆的榜样，其影响甚至可能波及更远的地区。
注释：
regime n. 政体，政权，政权制度
coup n. 砰然而有效的一击，妙计，出乎意料的行动，政变
expenditure n. 支出，花费
plummet vi. 垂直落下
recession n. 撤回，退回，退后，工商业之衰退，不景气
consolidation n. 巩固，合并
polarization n. [物]偏振（现象），极化（作用），两极化，分化
geology n. 地质学，地质概况
tariff n. 关税，关税表，税则，（旅馆，饭店等的）价目表、价格表
boutique n. 专卖流行衣服的小商店
premium n. 额外费用，奖金，奖赏，保险费，（货币兑现的）贴水
venture n. 冒险，投机，风险
entrepreneur n. <法> 企业家，主办人
niche adj. 瞄准机会的
incentive n. 动机
commute v. 每天（乘火车）往返上班；定期往返于两地间
kiosk n. 亭子
jaguar n. 美洲虎
cub n. 幼兽，不懂规矩的年轻人
kitten n. 小猫，小动物
mushroom vi. 迅速生长，迅速增加，采蘑菇
Chile Miracle

Announcer: Now on BBC Radio Four, it's time for IN BUSINESS. This week Peter Day reports from South America on a country seen by many of its neighbours as an example to the whole continent … and perhaps even further afield.

(ACTUALITY - PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION)

Day: Heartfelt thanks to her supporters from the new President of Chile, Michelle Bachehelet, after she was elected last month. The country has seen very big changes since the new President was a child during the military regime of the 1970s - the military regime that tortured her parents. Chile today is Latin America's star economic performer, but Ms Bachehelet's new government will almost certainly pick up at least one legacy from those now distant 1970s.

Bayer: The military coup was in 1973. This brought huge changes in the economic policy mainly and a huge reduction in social expenditures. This was more or less a very authoritarian constitution. Now we have a new constitution, which is much more democratic. And then we have expanded; our economy has grown very fast.

(MUSIC)

Day: Harald Bayer of Estudios Publicos - the Centre for Public Studies - in the Chilean capital, Santiago. He has just become government minister for public works. And it's that apparent Chilean miracle we're going to be looking at in this In Business. The country has had a roller coaster ride over the past three decades. President Pinochet's military government embraced a free market economy, a complete contrast from Allende's Marxist rule, which it overthrew in a coup. Pinochet slashed government spending, privatised state companies, tried to attract foreign investors. In response, unemployment soared, wages plummeted, people became poorer. But by the end of the 1970s, there were signs of economic growth. It felt like a boom until 1982. Then came more trouble: Chile was caught up in the Latin American debt crisis, inducing a huge recession. The Pinochet government, despite unrest, pressed on with its embrace of the free market: more privatisation, reduced taxes. This brought eventual economic stability, and these same policies were adopted when the first democratically elected government took office in 1990. And Chile still seems to be a place where the free market seems to work. I asked the economist Harald Bayer what he thought were the main aspects of Chile's success today, an economic achievement admired across the whole of Latin America?

Bayer: Consolidation of democracy, a broad agreement between political sectors about the path of development; this is one of the aspects. Then the other aspect is that this is a very market oriented economy, very friendly for investment, very friendly for new firms coming from abroad. And the third aspect is social expenditures have increased a lot - so if you look the last fifteen years, for example, the increase has been 175% in social expenditures. This has helped a lot building an inclusive social policy, which is third aspect of the Chilean success.

Day: And politically this has given democracy a hold on the country, has it - the fact that social spending was there, the fact that people felt better than they had done in the chaos of the past?

Bayer: Yuh, that's true. Around 70% of the people in Chile are happy with the way that things are going in Chile. So they know that there are a lot of problems, but more or less they are happy with the path of the Chilean democracy and the Chilean economy.

Day: Is it because of those shocks that people learnt a lesson from the swings between Left and Right?

Bayer: Chile has been traditionally a very polarised country during the 20th century with a lot of problems and then a military coup where people suffered a lot - so given that experience, given that polarisation people have planned a lot and there is a huge demand for agreement in the country. So political leaders feel that they need to agree the lot in order to continue the success of the country.

Day: Chile's geography - and geology - are important reasons for its success. The country has a wealth of natural resources dotted along this almost 3,000 mile sliver between the Andes and the Pacific. Of its total exports, 40 percent is still copper. And now, says Harald Bayer, Chilean companies are learning how to add value to the things they produce.

Bayer: The free trade agreement with Europe and with the US are helping a lot in that sense because it's a very competitive economy and experts are growing very rapidly not only in the natural resources oriented exports like copper or forestry, but also manufacturing and basically food. Our exports in food are increasing very, very quickly.

Day: So is the economy opening up? It was a closed economy in the past and now exports are developing. They were always potentially there, but they were never done.

Bayer: For example, thirty years ago the average tariff in Chile was 125%. Currently the average tariff is 2.6%, so we are a very open economy.

Zanetta: If you look at the moment, Casablanca you know has a lot of development. If you were here fifteen years ago, there was no single vineyard.

Day: Driving down the Casablanca Valley an hour and a half west from Santiago the investments along a new motorway are startling.

(ACTUALITY - WINERY TOUR)

Day: This winery, Casas Del Bosque has been set up by one of Chile's most successful businessmen, Juan Cunio. It's a long-term investment to make a 'boutique' premium wine. The general manager Hugo Zanetta explains that as Chilean wines grow in reputation, foreign investment flows in - a sign of confidence in the country.

Zanetta: Well there is a lot of foreign investment in Chile obviously, obviously. I think it's important you know if people like the Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, they you know made a joint venture with Concha y Toro and created Almaviva. That's a good example because they are pushing Chile up to our next stage. So these type of people that are coming to Chile obviously you know they are helping us as a Chilean people to push the quality of our wines to the next stage, which is something very important.

Day: Looking at this winery, there are experts who say this sort of investment demonstrates how much more of this sort of thing there could be. Time to visit Eduardo Bitran at Fundacion Chile. It's a much-praised organisation inventing new ways of doing business.

Bitran: Our goal is to create new innovative business in this country and we have been quite successful. We created a salmon industry, the first salmon company; we have created the first berry companies; we innovated in flat fish and wine. Many of the areas where Chile are creating new industries that have grown very rapidly, we have been involved.

Day: What do you mean by "we've created"? How does it happen? What do you add to an entrepreneur or an idea?

Bitran: We have the following approach. We look at the work, we try to find new technologies. When we find something that will feed our natural resources, we transfer the technology, we look for an entrepreneur, we create a company, we put capital, we bring additional capital, we put in place and adapt the technology and we have the business running, and after three, four years we sell the business.

Day: So your criteria are how these things will sell their products, these new companies will sell their products or services to the outside world, what standards the outside world needs, are they?

Bitran: Basically to select the company, we try to look into big export markets. We don't want to be really a niche opportunist. Then we see whether we could be world-class competitor and whether we have an advantage and we could develop this advantage through technology. Then we have a high standard in terms of management, the quality of the product and the technology that we bring in.

Day: Despite the successful export-led economy, there is still widespread poverty in Chile: so Fundacion Chile tries to find ways of developing technical and scientific knowledge, and then breeding new business opportunities out of it. Now why does it need a prod from the Fundacion? Why can't these things just happen on their own in Chile?

Bitran: Well this is a good question: why the market is not producing all these new ventures? Well there are some market imperfections that are well known. Usually when you go and discover these new opportunities, it's easy to copy. Then the first ones that came into the business are not going to get all the benefit. In fact many times happen that the second, the third in line will get more benefit because the first one will make the mistakes and you don't replay the mistake the next time along. Then there is lack of incentive. That's why entities like this with significant market discipline because we have to self-finance ourselves are bringing a lot of value to the Chilean economy.

Day: Do you think that gives you the failure rate behind the scenes, that conventional business in say Silicon Valley - what do they say, one out of ten makes real profits and the two out of ten make something like profits but the rest are losers? Do you think you'll have eight of ten ideas failing before they get to sort of realisation stage behind the scenes with you?

Bitran: No, no, no. When we go into the creation of a company, if we had this type of failure we would be broken. Really we cannot afford to lose more than 30% of our companies in terms of becoming really unsuccessful. More than that, we'll be in trouble. And we don't have more than that; it's less than that.

Day: And the profits you make from your successes plough back into the business, do they?

Bitran: Exactly. Overall then we have a reasonable return.

Day: For an example of the 'demonstration effect' that now has more than fifty companies producing salmon exports worth getting on for one billion pounds last year, travel four hundred miles south of Santiago to the Chilean lake district.

Kleinsteuber: We stay near the border with Argentina about twenty miles near the River Cherquen that falls from the mountains.

Day: It's all very green here at a bend in a river, surrounded by steep hills; in fact, they're extinct volcanoes. The sun breaks through the lowering clouds, adding sparkle to the scene from twelve big fish breeding tanks. It's a venture inspired by the fish industry started by Fundacion Chile. In the middle of the tanks is Aleck Kleinsteuber; he's got plans for a hundred on this site alone, and he's bought the water rights here and on other rivers too. He has - he says - ambitious plans.

[1] [2] [3] [4] 下一页