{"id":527743,"date":"2018-06-13T12:58:10","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T12:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/?p=527743"},"modified":"2020-10-23T16:17:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T16:17:00","slug":"infrastructure-knocking-down-barriers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/thought-leaders-interviews\/infrastructure-knocking-down-barriers.html","title":{"rendered":"Infrastructure, knocking down barriers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"infrastructure-globalisation-baldwin-interview\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00abThe worldwide infrastructure industry<\/strong> is quintessential to the very concept of globalization<\/strong>,\n or in other words the most important economic phenomenon of our times \nby far\u00bb. Richard Baldwin, who was born in England and studied economics \nunder the guidance of Paul Krugman<\/strong>, is considered one of the world\u2019s foremost experts on the topic of globalization<\/strong>, of trade policies (and controversies), and on international financial flows<\/strong>. The very same topics that are crucial to understanding where the world today is going.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor, are infrastructure works necessary for globalization?<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u00abMore than necessary. There\u2019s a specific historical timeframe to keep\n in mind. Towards the end of the 1800s, between the first and second \nIndustrial Revolution, Great Britain began to equip all of the countries\n in its vast colonial empire<\/strong>, from Kenya to New Zealand, from India to Canada, from Hong Kong to Australia, with incredibly powerful infrastructure<\/strong>. All of a sudden the English went wild with railroads, bridges, dams, roads<\/strong>,\n and whatever else was needed to put a country in a position to sprint \nahead in terms of industrial development. This campaign was \nscientifically and accurately planned: British banks were authorised to \nset up the necessary credit lines for these works, and massive \neducational programmes were set up for the local population to make the transition from farm to factory<\/strong>.\n And here is the cherry on the cake: at the same time, the British put \nup a series of trade barriers to protect the competitiveness of their \nown manufacturing industry and to create a massive volume of \ninternational trade that however did not expand beyond the \u201cinternal \nchannels\u201d of the great Empire. This  mechanism worked perfectly for \nnearly a century. Then de-colonialisation arrived and these barriers \nfell, one by one\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the infrastructure itself remained, and this is what makes the British colonies stand out. Is that correct?<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u00abYes, more or less. The French, too, did something similar, on a \nsmaller scale. Once the colonial phase ended, the infrastructure \nremained, as well as the staff to manage it. And this system worked, I \nmust say, in the majority of the former colonies. There were a few \nexceptions among African countries, where local conflicts had a negative\n impact on infrastructure. But even in these cases, after a period of \ntime it was usually fixed back up into shape. In Uganda <\/strong>for example, the British-era railway stations have been literally dusted off<\/strong>,\n and the rail lines reactivated. And that\u2019s the case in many other \ncountries as well. To be sure, having their own infrastructure was not \nsufficient to guarantee all of these economies a place in the sun, but \nfortunately in the years following World War II the International Monetary Fund <\/strong>and the World Bank <\/strong>did\n their part, and are still continuing to do so, helping these countries \nfrom a financial point of view and also helping them to build the \narchitecture of a democratic state\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"doha–qatar41\"
Doha, Qatar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Moving along to the present, what is the level of freedom \nactually delivered by the current trading system, and therefore what is \nthe possibility that all economies can benefit, from emerging economies \nto mature ones?<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u00abCertainly a very high level of freedom, even if it is not perfect. \nRecent tensions between a few of the world\u2019s most important economies \nare based on real problems \u2013 it must be said \u2013 even though they perhaps \nadmittedly may have not been managed in an optimal way. This  \ndemonstrates that something is not working. However, it is precisely the\n fact that people realise there is a problem that enables them to find a\n solution. As Soren Kerkegaard says, \u201cto understand life we must look at\n the past, without however forgetting an even more important principle: \nthat we must live life looking at the future\u201d. What the philosopher says\n is absolutely true\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your last book is called \u201cThe Great Convergence\u201d. What is it about?<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u00abIt is about precisely what we\u2019ve been discussing. Let us say that the final phase of globalization began around 1820 <\/strong>almost unnoticed when the Industrial Revolution and the steam locomotive resulted in a boom<\/strong> in the transportation <\/strong>of\n goods. For the first time ever, my ancestors in London could experience\n the thrill of eating bread made with American grain, sipping tea from \nCeylon sweetened by Jamaican sugar on a tablecloth of cotton from India.\n The second wave of globalization<\/strong> occurred as I said at the end of the 19th century and it resulted in the boom of infrastructure<\/strong> we discussed. I would identify a third era<\/strong> around 1990, when the computer revolution<\/strong>\n cut the costs of communications and of the transfer of ideas. This \nparticular phase of globalization was preceded by an intermediate period\n marked by a short setback. It happened during the 1980s when trade \ncosts fell, industries got together in the G7 and started an intensive \nphase of innovation to boost growth. Since the cost of transferring \nideas fell less than the cost of trade, the innovations stayed where \nthey were, let\u2019s say in the North. The situation changed again thanks to technological innovation<\/strong>:\n it became possible to produce overseas coordinating the activity from \nheadquarters. This phase, however, has also seen the growth of a great \ninequalities. We are now witnessing the next phase, which I call the \nphase of \u201cgreat convergence,\u201d which has only  just begun. Further \ntechnological development will enable professionals in Western countries\n to apply their talents across a larger area: an American engineer can \nrepair a railroad in South Africa by remotely using robots, because tele-presence is no longer science fiction<\/strong>.\n People in different points of the globe can work together on projects. \nIf knowledge is  spread in a healthy way, it will be easier to deal with\n global relationships in a calmer way. And also domestic relationships\u00bb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00abThe worldwide infrastructure industry is quintessential to the very concept of globalization, or in other words the most important economic phenomenon of our times by far\u00bb. Richard Baldwin, who was born in England and studied economics under the guidance of Paul Krugman, is considered one of the world\u2019s foremost experts on the topic of globalization, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":523894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[19007,19002],"yst_prominent_words":[15633,15625,15632,15624,15634,15626,56,15635,15627,2003,15637,15629,15630,15622,187,15636,15628,15638,15631,15623],"class_list":["post-527743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thought-leaders-interviews","tag-industry-and-trade","tag-new-challenges"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527743"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":541930,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527743\/revisions\/541930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527743"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=527743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}