”Hard” infrastructure and regional connectivity in Latin America and the Caribbean: developments in the region’s land-locked economies

Despite the substantial reduction in tariffs over the past few decades, the competitiveness of the Latin American and Caribbean region (LAC) has suffered due to a history of underinvestment in hard infrastructure. This paper specifically focuses on transport infrastructure, utilising statistics from the World Bank’s most recent Logistics Performance Indicator (LPI 2010) and the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report (2009) to identify the infrastructural gap in the LAC region. Bolivia and Paraguay are flagged as particular areas of concern, with the quality of transport infrastructure significantly below the global and LAC average, particularly with regard to road and air infrastructure. Whilst efforts are being made to improve the situation (such as the upgrading of Encarnación trading hub in Paraguay), enhanced regional connectivity will require not just more substantive infrastructure spend than at present, but also the assignation of funds to ensure the maintenance of existing infrastructure.