Negotiating a Copper and Resource Decline, Asia and Astronomy Beckon

Ambassador of Chile to Malaysia H.E. Christian Rehren discusses: 

- The Malaysia-Chile Free Trade Agreement - Trade value - breakdown; 

- Talks on services and investments - commencement - two years implementation of the Trade in Goods Agreement; 

- Copper - salmon - wine - as among Chile's biggest industries; 

- Chile - Malaysia trade currently favors Chile -- reasons - trade balance - outlook; 

- Chile - strongest sovereign bond rating in South America - issues; 

- Global Competitiveness Report - Chile; - FTAs - abundance - issues; 

- Rule-based countercyclical fiscal policy - reasons - issues; 

- Chile - world’s top producer of copper - issues; 

- Double-edged sword - over-reliance; - Copper as economic mainstay; 

- Global demand - prices - downturn; 

- Plunging gold prices not helping - help reduce cash costs of mining copper - double whammy; 

- Economic outlook - Chile - copper prices continue declines; 

- Oversupply: huge concern; - Resource boom - cost inflation - declining competitive advantage - social frisson - Gini Coefficient;

- Investment in astronomy - historical reasons - innovation - research.