LÍNGUA INGLESA

Read the text below which is entitled “Infrastructure in Latin America” in order to answer question.

Infrastructure in Latin America

The Economist (adapted)

Jun 15th 2006

It is impossible to see such a thing and disbelieve in progress. Where there was air, there is rock. Where there was rock, there is air. Where there was no lake, there will be a lake. El Cajón, a dam 188 metres (617 feet) tall in Nayarit, in western Mexico, is to generate 750MW of
electricity starting in 2007.

El Cajón is Latin America’s biggest construction project. It is also a rarity. In Mexico, public spending on infrastructure – electricity generation, roads, railways, water plants and the like – was a third lower in 2004 than a decade earlier, according to a report by Merrill Lynch, an investment bank. The World Bank describes two-fifths of the country’s motorways as “pre-modern”. Nevertheless, the government has found the money to spend 0.7% of GDP on subsidizing the electricity that is consumed – which does nothing for the poorest, who live in the dark in rural areas.

So it is across Latin America. Although the region’s economies are growing faster, thanks to an export boom, they are hobbled by poor roads and railways, clogged ports and a precarious electricity supply. In the 1990s governments slashed public investment to balance their budgets and invited private investors to make up for the shortfall.