IT's Growing!!

[Stonigut]

More, damn I called it! Intel accounted for more than 50 percent of cr exports.

Let's see if a cr intel rises from the ashes of Intel, they have 1500 trained engineers, techs, broom sweepers and cafeteria workers, I will be shocked if another company goes to rc, let's see Amd, they got troubles, nvidia they got troubles, can't see anyone packing up shop and heading to cr for those talented workers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rodrig...b_5246788.html

[Stonigut]

Boa laid off another 1500 in April another back office gone. Between intel and boa that is pretty much the whole IT industry.

Don't mean to be rough but as you can see this ain't much different than garment manufacturing.

[Don1]

Yep...I called it

All in a days globalization.

But Stoni as I told you knowledge based industries are not like garment factories or cruise tourism. If the investor goes... the knowledge stays and is attractive to other players

Yet to say this is a catastrophe is unfounded. First and foremost is the fact that Costa Rica's investment climate has not deteriorated at all because of Intel's decision, and 1,500 surplus engineers and technicians will be a prized asset for any company wishing to either set up or expand its presence in the country. A large complaint over the past few years has been that backward linkages between Intel and the rest of the economy have been less than ideal. This may have been a drawback, but it also means that the negative impact on other firms will be weaker once microchip production ceases. Furthermore, there is a tendency towards forgetting that services account for a large share of exports as well. Tourism is obviously the largest component but the second largest happens to be IT services at US$1.9 billion: around four-fifths as much as microprocessors themselves. It is telling that Intel's R&D and servicing facilities will remain in country, and economic policymakers would do well in leveraging its advantages in these sectors further; perhaps becoming a regional hub for business/IT services just as Panama is increasingly being for logistics and banking.

[Don1]

Stoni... we're discussing developing countries here. We all know the deck is stacked against dem by Babylon... so your harping on the value add question of IT is disingenuous

Take Jamaican tourism...the real benefits are creamed off by a few hotel chain owners, attraction operators and in bond merchants. The vast majority of jobs are low skill & low wage. The industry gets massive tax breaks and damages the environment with huge social costs. 60%-70% of the inputs are imported so there's a big leakage of FX.
So by your construct is this a "real" industry in this 21st century??

These are the scraps that are left off Babylon's table. If you have a new development solution that's superior to IT let's hear it...or tap yuh empty yappin

[Don1]

Stonigut;493715]Lawd have mercy Don1, I have personally been involved in a number of technology transfers across multiple countries and continents and believe me the transfer of the real knowledge is minimal if any. In this case when Intel picks up and leaves, do I expect to see a semiconductor or chipset plant suddenly emerging from the jungle, no, only chip I expect to see is a banana chip made by some local processor.

If you're expecting the CR IT industry to be a Silion Valley clone you're misguided

Do I expect when the back offices for hp and amazon leave to see any residual knowledge being applied and creating some local third party back office that other companies can use at their choice, no not really and if so, destined to flop very soon.

Interesting anecdote Stoni...but what you expect is irrelevant. What's relevant is the US$2B knowledge industry CR has created... more that 20X Jamaica's industry size. Analysts have to consider numbers.. not speculations or conjectures about what company is coming or going

Real IT development in CR will be slow and a hard slog and best possibilities will be development on the software side to meet local need or the extreme unusual case where a brilliant local May stumble onto something good, very unlikely.

This kind of development is some serious work, but you are right the payback is massive if you get it right, but this is not a , oh let's focus on IT it is the solution to our problems. Voila!

Of course any worthwhile development program is a slog. You're revealing nothing new here Stoni

The important issue is that CR has made a great start... while Jamaicans mostly engage in yappin

[Stonigut]

Cool, bottom line is IT unless it is being developed to Connect what you have and make it better and give your country, firms an advantage is all just the same old shell game as cr is finding out. iT is not a solution in and of itself, many people think that, I know some in Ja govt that have been singing that tune, the truth is the fundamental heavy lifting in Agro, tourism, mining, manufacturing and services still have to be done, it is no Merlin business but it can be used to speed up all these processes and make ja more competitive, it is the connector, the filler and the icing on the cake, but it ain't the cake.

[Don1]

This connector vs real economy argument of yours is not sensible. IT's a false dichotomy you're promoting.

We're in the 21st century... not the 19th or 20th. Even the concept of literacy is morphing from merely mastering the 3 Rs to basic competence in digital apps.

Jamaica has been dabbling for many decades in a so called real economy based on subsistence agriculture, low level tourism, screwdriver manufacturing and extractive mining. Your ideas are a prescription to continue that folly.
We're a nation of hewers of wood and drawers of water as foretold in the bible. What are the results of that? Persistent poverty.
Jamaica needs a new development paradigm.

The only way to start to change that backward picture is for the country to have the vision to transform education to a STEM focus i.e. to see science and technology as fundamental to progress.
Along with our love for yappin, dancin, singin & sportin..... a culture of love of science must be created if we're to have a chance

Get wid 21st Century reality Stoni.... the imperative to build a solid IT industry will only get more acute as the century progresses. But only if Jamaica wants to escape backwardness

[Assasin]

people with the knowledge can migrate.

[Don1]

people with the knowledge can migrate.

Thanks Sass

[Stonigut]

Yes, migrate to the USA and EU which is what is going to happen if they get lucky.

Don1 what's the largest most successful local IT company in Cr, let's take a look at this and see how it develops, it would be nice to see a few well trained local engineers and techs cone together and actually do something. One nice outcome that is not quite IT but related is that a few fired engineers at Intel get together and can be a semiconductor/chip assembly subcontractor, the technology and capital to get that rolling is possible.

[Don1]

Skilled people can migrate...and so can the unwashed masses. There's nothing new in that.

But at least you're coming along in a realizing that native technical talent is a great platform to leverage.

There's hope for you yet Stoni...you may not be irredeemable after all

[Assasin]

Jamaica needs all of the above. No doubt we need some ICT developers, Engineers and others, but we also need a good stream of land base tourism and some cruise, Agriculture has to improve and manufacturing.

For every 3% increase in tourism more than 3-4000 people at least are employed. Agriculture is also high intensive labour so more people especially rural people get employed. Both of these also help with the transporting sectors. They are good giving small business a chance to grow. We also need ITC and engineers to attract business but manufacturing have to be in the mix to maximize the benefit of this.

[Islandman]

What we need most of all is to produce a constant stream of trainable young people. They won't be all high tech but they must be literate,trainable and comfortable with technology.

The days of looking for a few mega-corporations in any industry to save an economy are waning. The todays modern industries simply do not employ people in numbers that the 20th century giants did.

General Motors at its peak employed over 600,000 people. Google employs about 50,000. Facebook employs less than 10,000

Even old industries like agriculture and mining employ far less people these day to produce much more , and many of those that are in demand are blue collar skilled workers. Machinists, technicians, etc.

My basic point is that yes we have to select some industries as priorities but whatever we choose don't think we going to escape the most important raw material which is a work force equipped to be productive in the 21st century.

Otherwise whatever the industry is , our people will be sweeping the floors and serving the lunch, and blaming the capitalist oppressor for giving all the good jobs to people from outside.

[Stonigut]

Hey I love local talent, it is the foreign technology and capital combination that is the hard to come by item. For all the hundreds of engineers and technicians and trained personnel we have developed out of sixty years of bauxite and alumina what actual new value add have we obtained from that particular foreign investment, I think the most we got from that is a couple of excavator companies, realistically this jump of technology from MNC to local is like climbing Mount Everest backward, can be done but it is ridiculously hard to jump those obstacles.

[Don1]

Hey I love local talent, it is the foreign technology and capital combination that is the hard to come by item. For all the hundreds of engineers and technicians and trained personnel we have developed out of sixty years of bauxite and alumina what actual new value add have we obtained from that particular foreign investment, I think the most we got from that is a couple of excavator companies, realistically this jump of technology from MNC to local is like climbing Mount Everest backward, can be done but it is ridiculously hard to jump those obstacles.

As I said...If it aint hard, it aint worthwhile

The key is to develop an appropriate plan... then execute consistently over the long term

Unfortunately we Jamaicans are best at executing yappin