La competitividad de la industria colombiana. Un balance de su evolución en los años noventa

Competitivity of Colombian Industry an evolution balance in the 90's

Este artículo efectúa un balance de la evolución de la competitividad que, al abocar por una "competitividad de calidad", liga esta noción con el mejoramiento de la calidad de vida en el país, esto es con su desarrollo. Luego se muestra la caída en los indicadores de competitividad en la industria durante la década y se señala que este estuvo asociado al deterioro de las condiciones macroeconómicas, que incidió en la evolución de los costos y en la contracción de los mercados de la industria: también, a la incidencia de factores meso tales como los sobrecostos y demoras resultantes del atraso de las infraestructuras productivas del país, y sobre todo, la 'crisis" de fines del decenio en el empleo y la ciencia y tecnología, esto es, en los factores más importantes para el desarrollo de capacidades competitivas dina micas.

This article makes a balance of the evolution of competitivity in Colombian industry in the 90's decade. It is proposed a systemic conception of competitivity that when it pleads for a "quality of competilivity", ties this notion with the improvement of quality life in the country, with its development. Then it shows the fall in the competitivity index in the industry during the decade, and points out that this one was associate to the damage of macroeconomic conditions, that fall into a rise of costs arid the contraction of industry markets; also to the incidence of middle factors such as over-costs and delays resulting from the backwardness of productive infrastructures of the country, and over all, the "crisis" at the end of the decade in employment and science and technology, this is, in the two factors most important for the development of dynamical competitive capabilities. In the middle level, it is analyze and project also; the institutional developments come up to the treatment of the productive chains and clusters. Then, in the micro line are shown: the advances in government support to the management competitivity: the need to bound these actions with other promotion mechanisms (such as clusters and chains); and the need to go deep into the study of charges occurred within the firms. Finally, in the state level it is take out an evolution in the notion of compelitivity that opens the spectrum of the strategies towards developing it.