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GLOBAL CHALLENGES
IN THE 21st CENTURY
© 2004 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
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© 2004 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
Singapore Lecture
30 April 2004
GLOBAL CHALLENGES IN THE 21st CENTURY
A View from Chile
Ricardo Lagos
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
© 2004 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
Published in Singapore in 2004 by ISEAS Publications
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace
Pasir Panjang
Singapore 119614
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: <http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg>
© 2004 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
ISEAS Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Lagos Escobar, Ricardo.
Global challenges in the 21st century : a view from Chile.
(Singapore lecture series, 0129-1912; 24)
1. Globalization.
2. World politics—1989-
3. International relations.
4. International economic relations.
5. Security, International.
6. Chile—Foreign relations—1988-
7. Chile—Politics and government—1988-
I. Title.
II. Series.
DS501 I597 no. 24 2004
ISBN 981-230-256-5 (soft cover)
ISSN 0129-1912
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-
copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast
Asian Studies.
Typeset by International Typesetters
Printed in Singapore by Seng Lee Press Pte. Ltd.
© 2004 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
CONTENTS
I Opening Address Lee Hsien Loong 1
II Global Challenges in the 21st Ricardo Lagos 4
Century: A View from Chile
III Closing Remarks K. Kesavapany 17
© 2004 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
I
Opening Address
Lee Hsien Loong
Your Excellency, Mr Ricardo Lagos, President of the Republic of
Chile; Distinguished Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen.
Many Singaporeans remember Chile fondly, even though not
so many have visited the country. This is because when Singapore
hosted the Miss Universe contest in 1987 for the first and only
time, the winner, Miss Cecilia Bolocco, was Chilean, and many
Singaporeans today still associate her beauty and charm with her
country.
It gives me great pleasure to welcome all of you to the 24th
Singapore Lecture. The Singapore Lecture was inaugurated in 1980,
and since then, many prominent world leaders have addressed the
forum.
This morning, we are honoured to have with us His Excellency
Ricardo Lagos, President of the Republic of Chile, on his first
official visit to Singapore as the President of Chile.
Singapore-Chile bilateral relations are warm and friendly. We
share similar economic outlooks, we both desire to connect ourselves
to the world, we both rely on a fair and open trading system, and as
relatively small countries we both depend on a multilateral global
order to protect our interests and ourselves. Because of that, we
believe that Chile is Singapore’s natural partner in Latin America to
build a bridge across the Pacific.
We are delighted to have President Lagos share with us his
views on the global challenges in the 21st century. Chile’s economy
© 2004 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
2
is one of the most dynamic in Latin America. It enjoyed an
annual average growth of over 6 per cent throughout the 1990s and
continues to have good growth prospects. According to the Global
Competitiveness Report 2003–2004, Chile is ranked the most
competitive Latin American economy. The Economist Intelligence
Unit also ranks Chile as the most attractive business environment in
Latin America.
A large part of Chile’s economic growth is due to international
trade. Today, international trade represents two-thirds of Chile’s
national output, one of the highest proportions in the world. Chile
has free-trade agreements with the United States, European Union,
South Korea, Canada, Mexico and Central America, and the European
Free Trade Association, as well as tariff agreements with all other
Latin American countries. It is also a member of the World Trade
Organization, APEC, and FEALAC (Forum for East Asia–Latin
America Cooperation), and an associate member of MERCOSUR.
As the Chilean economy spreads its wings abroad, its presence
is becoming felt in the Asia-Pacific. Asia is one of Chile’s fastest-
growing export markets. Chile’s exports to Asia totalled US$6.6
billion in 2003, more than its exports to the European Union (US$5
billion), to other Latin American countries (US$4 billion), or to the
United States (US$3.7 billion). Chile’s FTA with South Korea, its
first with an Asian country, came into force on 1 April 2004. It is
also working with New Zealand and Singapore on the Pacific-3 Free
Trade Agreement, which will be the first trans-Pacific agreement
that spans across three different regions. Chile believes that the
FTAs would encourage Asian companies to invest in Chile, to
generate jobs and incomes for its economy and at the same time
position Chile as a gateway to other Latin American markets.
President Lagos began his career as an economist and lawyer.
As an academic, he was Professor, then Head, School of Political
and Administrative Sciences in the University of Chile, and then
Secretary-General, Faculty of Latin American Social Sciences. He
3
worked as an economist for the United Nations before entering
politics in the 1980s. After the restoration of democracy to Chile in
1990, he was appointed Minister of Education, and later Minister of
Public Works, before assuming the presidency in January 2000.
Regarded as the first socialist Chilean President since Salvador
Allende, President Lagos has the interest of Chilean workers and the
lower-income groups at heart. He believes that free trade and good
governance will enhance business confidence and attract foreign
investment into Chile. He believes in upgrading the industrial
capability of the Chilean economy to create new jobs. He also
believes in balancing this with adequate social safety nets to strengthen
social cohesion and take care of the poor and disadvantaged in the
society. The process will not be easy. It means making the labour
market more flexible, giving workers new skills, finding ways to
sustain social spending, re-tuning the tax structures, and of course,
completing more multilateral and bilateral free-trade agreements to
promote Chilean exports. The challenges are all too familiar to us in
Singapore, which is also actively restructuring its economy.
May I now invite His Excellency President Ricardo Lagos to
deliver the 24th Singapore Lecture and share with us his perspective
of global challenges in the 21st century.
4
II
Global Challenges in the 21st Century:
A View from Chile
Ricardo Lagos
Mr Lee Hsien Loong, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore; Professor
Wang Gungwu, Chairman of Institute of Southeast Asian Studies;
Mr K. Kesavapany, Director of the Institute; Authorities, members
of the diplomatic corps; members of the academic community;
members of the business community; and students present here this
afternoon.
Dear Friends
I am so sorry that I think that the friends in Singapore will keep
referring to Miss Cecilia Bolocco than today’s speaker. I am so sorry
for that.
Let me tell you that it was not without hesitation that I accepted
the task of sharing with you some views on Global Challenges in this
24th Singapore Lecture.
I say “some hesitation” because the list of my predecessors here
is indeed impressive, and I am extremely honoured that you think I
can follow in the steps of my predecessors.
I accepted this invitation primarily because of our interest in
Singapore. We certainly share an ocean, but also much more than an
ocean. I would say that we share a common value: a common
approach to economic reform. Both countries, Chile and Singapore,
look forward to integration into the world society and this integration
is convenient for our own people. We also understand that in order
© 2004 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
5
to integrate in the society we need to share some common values to
build the kind of society we are going to be.
To be competitive today, you need to have some kind of internal
cohesion. You need to share some common values in the way that
you have been able to, to succeed in that particular area here in the
last forty years in Singapore. Our two countries have an interesting
track record in what we are trying to do. Both are active members of
APEC. Both have actively supported the Forum for East Asia–Latin
America Cooperation (FEALAC) and both are working through
trade agreements to bring together our two countries plus New
Zealand. We hope to be able to finish this agreement between the
three countries early next year. Within ASEAN, Singapore is one of
the most active business centres and, needless to say, the main port
from which many of the Chilean products are distributed to the other
member countries around the region.
At the same time, for both countries, multilateralism has become
both a global and a national imperative. If we want to make progress,
we need a world with very clear rules, where opportunities are open
to all.
This is why we thought that it was important to thank you for
this invitation.
We think the forces that shape our world today are forces that
have to do with processes of globalization, and at the same time,
with the processes of what happens with multilateral institutions that
will have to shape, to some extent, the global process.
In other words, I do think that there is a growing tension
between these two forces. While globalization is gathering strength,
multilateralism — I wouldn’t say that it is losing force, but, at
least, multilateral institutions and the rules that are supposed to be
applied by them are not growing as fast enough as the processes of
globalization.
© 2004 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
