Good for Argentina, bad for Chile

Intel will develop software in Argentina The American company will set up a software development center in the city of Córdoba, on the grounds of the Universidad Tecnológica Nacional (UTN), which will join the network of Intel centers operating in the United States, China and Russia *.

More details:

The world’s largest microprocessor maker signed an agreement with the Argentine government to open a development center in 2006.

** MIT backs the third world: hundred-dollar laptops for Argentina **

And in Chile?

On one hand the government is thinking about subsidizing internet use, good for users, but on the other it imposes a
30% levy on software imports, while hardware, thanks to the free trade agreements, pays no duties, good for the MPPC program. This is an attack on the development of the IT industry in Chile; for integrators it is a burden that is hard to carry. And mind you, open source doesn’t solve it, because free software does not mean software at no cost, as some simplistic people think.

All of this makes me think that those in charge of IT in Chile are incoherent, to say the least.

My apologies for all the trackbacks, but I believe these issues should be discussed by every blogger interested in the progress of our countries.