JULIO ROBERTO GARCIA MORAN
RAFAEL LANDIVAR UNIVERSITY
ISSUES IN BUILDING PRODUCTS FOR THE DEVELOPING WORLD
INFRASTRUCTURE.
COMMUNICATION.
In Guatemala a lot of roads and highways have been destroyed. Only 5% of all roads are in good state, the rest are either destroyed or are unpaved. Many remote villages and towns are thus unconnected by paved roads and this inhibits trade in the products that they produce. This is a problem that has not been fixed. In fact, the few roads fixed have been destroyed by the recent hurricanes.
TRANSPORTATION.
Most of the transportation in Guatemala is by bus, rural people use buses because they cannot afford to buy a car. Only a few have cars. For shorter distances, people use motorcycles and bicycles, for longer distances there is only the bus.
POWER AVAILABILITY.
Many villages and towns of the rural area have electricity, Now this problem is being addressed although there are towns and villages that don’t have this important service.
GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE AND CORRUPTION.
The problem of corruption in Guatemala is sad. Knowing that many politicians are corrupt its very troublesome. The police are the biggest source of corruption in Guatemala but many of the deputies that create and approve laws in the congress are corrupt too. In Guatemala all of the infrastructure works are created with political aims and this they time for the end of a presidential cycle (to please people and publicize their campaigns) and not with aims to truly develop the country.
CULTURE.
POVERTY.
Guatemala is a very poor country. Most of the population of Guatemala are Mayan and live in rural areas. Of this people, most live in extreme poverty (live with less than 1 buck to the day). This problem it has always existed and no government has been able to solve it. There are families of 11 members that live in poverty but even so, somehow, they find the way to survive.
EDUCATION.
Education is the most important problem in Guatemala and also no government are solved this problem. For me, the resolution of this problem is the solution of many other problems in Guatemala in addition of the development of the country. Most of the population of Guatemala doesn’t know how to write and read, the minority go to school. Of these only a few go on to high school and graduate. Only 2% have the privilege of attending a university.
BIRTH RATE.
The birth rate is growing up while death rate is decreasing. The population of Guatemala is therefore increasing- now Guatemala is aprox. 13 million. This problem is actually being addressed by family planning laws but to date these are not effective yet.
RELIGION.
Religion can be a problem if it mixes with other activities that are not compatible. There are many religions and sects in Guatemala and all these differing mindsets make inhibit development. This becomes a problem because we have to find ways to do development activities consistent with the ideologies and beliefs of the people.
BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY
CAPITAL
Many businessmen have problems obtaining capital. Most the business finance their activities (especially small producers) by means of borrowing, but often lose all at the end because of bad cash administration. In addition, businesses go bankrupt because of bad management in general. This is a very common problem in Guatemala.
ORGANIZATION.
In Guatemala there exist a few kinds of organizations for small and medium sized businesses. The most common organizations are the cooperatives and societies. The problem with these organizations is that there will always be a person with bad intentions. Consequently, if the business doesn’t have good internal controls it is susceptible to fraud.
PROFIT.
The biggest problem in organizations is the distribution of profits. In many cases there will be a person that would like take advantage of the business. Strict internal controls are required in order to avoid this problem. Other problem is the lack of planning in the business. In Guatemala most of the businesses don’t establish their cost and they don’t make up budgets. At the end of the season they realize that they have had a book loss. This lack of planning has caused many producers in Guatemala to fail.
DISTANCE BETWEEN DEVELOPER AND USERS.
All depends in the kind of business. There are business that are near the users and they can avoid the trading with intermediaries and their margins increase. But business like agriculture has the problem of distance and the producers solve this problem by trading with intermediaries. The exporters have this same problem because there are only 2 ports: one on the Atlantic and one on the Pacific. Another business that has this problem is the producers of perishable products because they have to invest in refrigerate in order to preserve this product.