The yankee dollar; Alliance for progress

Radio television at the University of Texas presents the Yankee dollar Yankee dollar. What is it borrowed. What will it buy radio television. The University of Texas in cooperation with the National Association of educational broadcasters invites you to tour Mexico with Richard Ariano as he talks to political leaders and to voters to management and to labor to rich to poor to the people of Mexico. One thing will guide these conversations. What is the American dollar bought south of our border. What can it buy. And above all what image of us is our money creating. American money finds its way into Latin American countries in different ways.

Cheap of these are through foreign aid. The federal dollars through monies spent by vacationers the tourist dollar and through money invested by businessmen. The company dollar is the channels through which our money flows or fails to flow affect the image it creates. The United States is giving aid to Mexico through a program known as the Alliance for Progress. What is the Alliance for Progress. What has it done. What can it do in order to more fully understand the Alliance for Progress program. Mr Ariano talked with Mr. Frankland Galland associated with the industrial program of the Agency for International Development. Here is a recording of that interview. I was speaking with Mr Franklin guill and was associated with the industry program of the Agency for International Development or more commonly as it's known in Latin America the Alliance for Progress. Mr. Gillon was born in Mexico and spent his earlier years here then going to the United States for his schooling where he completed his high school and college training. Mr.

Gilman we're certainly glad to have you with us today. Thank you very much Mr. Gill on the first question that I'd like to ask you is what what is the Alliance for Progress What does the Alliance for Progress consist of. Well there are lines for progress as you know as well as an agreement of 20 countries of the Western Continent spearheaded by the United States and in which basically the primary purpose is to elevate the standard of living of the peoples of this continent and by doing this a series of principles have been established among them. The most important are to elevate the standard of living. The economic growth rate of the people too to get a more equitable distribution of national wealth in all of these countries three need to maintain a balanced economy.

And then from then on you start getting into the specifics of agrarian reform or land reform tax reform and the elimination of illiteracy. Universal primary education. Increase of life expectancy by at least five years and all of these countries and in general the up holding of the dignity of man on which all principles are based. These then you might say are the goals of the Alliance for Progress the ones that you've just mentioned the fact that you are looking for an increased per capita income which means more economic welfare a more equitable distribution of wealth of future wealth and agrarian reform elimination of illiteracy and so on. Which of these programs specifically are you associated with and how are they being implemented. Well I am associated here in Mexico. Within the framework of my agency the agency for International Development and increasing industrial product to MATY

which as you know by increasing a natural product you increase the purchasing power of people by increasing the purchasing power you increase the consumption by increasing the consumption you increase productivity you sell itself. It's in this case not a vicious but a very. But official circle. We're here in Mexico trying to assist the Mexican government in the priorities that they are have established and stimulating and developing industrial growth and trying to catch up in the tremendous industrial gap which has existed in Latin America for the past 200 years. This program that you speak of is the one that is carried out through the industry section of the Alliance for Progress or the Agency for International Development is that right here in Mexico. That's right. Now what specific agencies in the Mexican government do you use to help implement these

goals. Well by agreement by international agreement we. Work through the Mexican industrial productivity Center which was established in 1955 and which incidentally. Was a direct result of our wonderful experience in Europe with the Marshall Plan and the establishment of the European industrial product in the centers. The center of an autonomous or semi autonomous agency of the Mexican government is works on the on the principle of assisting local established industry in the various regional sectors that it covers and giving them technical support technical information or. Kind of a consulting consulting service bringing to them the knowledge of

the specialized and latest innovations management principles economic and industrial research which is made possible through the hiring of short term contract consultants which we make available to the next. In other words in the industry section you have a subsection A for training an army Well a training program. Well let's put it this way in the Agency for International Development in Mexico or subsection is industry division we are concerned with those factors which affect the industry per se. We also have another division in our agency which is training which handles any training that my result as as an extension or a follow up of our of. Technical programs in the field. Let me explain this a little more. Supposing that we have a group of top management experts. Who

might come to Mexico for six or eight weeks and will give workshops or seminars in the field traveling from city to city. If they don't speak Spanish they will be escorted by simultaneous interpreters. They will then give a series of management finance organization of ministration human relations what have you two top managers of the area that they're in. These talks will vary from one to three weeks in the evenings to make the managers to make it possible for the managers to assist and still be at the helm of their of their companies on a whim. Excuse me. Then after the our manager our management consultants have left. We then have a great eight time period in which these participants to the workshops get together they discuss what they have learned they try to see if they can apply it and as a follow up.

We have been sending six or eight man impact teams to the United States to visit those companies and those organizations that have put into practice the things that we have been talking about during the workshop and some know what type of reception do you receive from the average Mexican businessman. When you approach him with the idea of attending one of these products here are the centers. Well its a mixed emotion. I think most of them would like to go. You will find that most Latin people and particularly the Mexicans have a tremendous thirst for knowledge. They would love to be able to learn everything and they could and to double it if possible. However the limiting factor to this is that in most Mexican companies where you are trying to get a person to attend a workshop this man is indispensable. The stratification is not as specialized as you have the United States or sometimes our sales manager will also be in

charge of distribution and charge of production and perhaps of advertising. So these people become a key man in their own organizations and it's very difficult to get them to attend a course over an extended length of time unless the hours and the scheduling is pretty close to being perfect as far as the average group is concerned. So they would like to go all but many times they don't have the money to pay for some of these courses which we have to charge in order to meet expenses due to our limited budget. Do you charge these expenses or is this not center industry or this is charged by either the center or the sponsoring company that might be having these things. It's a nonprofit type Expo charged they just charge enough to pay for the materials that might be handed out textbooks or for the simultaneous interpreting services etc.. The other factor is the. The fact that in Mexico many many people

many persons have two or three jobs. You have a man who will work full time during the morning until 2:00 in the afternoon who might perhaps have a law office or a consulting engineering firm and he will work on this from four to seven and then he will teach at the University at night. So in many cases the time factor is the most limiting one. This is the one that limits the attendance at the seminars restaurant. Well it's quite interesting to observe that this is in operation here in Mexico and I'm wondering is there any way that you have of measuring how much good these Brother TV centers have done. Do you have any basis for formulating an opinion. Well affective they have been. They have varied from region to region of course. I think perhaps. One of the most effective programs have has been the one in in Monterey which as you know is the largest industrial center of Mexico outside of the federal district.

It is the third largest city in Mexico and concentrated in Monterey. You have some of the largest heavy industry of the country among them the steel glass and other associated metallurgical plants. The industry productivity center of Monterey has been operating for several years now and they have gotten to the point where they are asked by industry on on a regular basis to to have those courses seminars management as we call them. Retreat on a on a periodic and schedule basis. They run courses for workers on the training with an industry basis. They have human relations courses all year round they have industrial safety courses and they probably they probably process 5000 persons a month.

Among the total aggregate of their courses in some other cities such as Dorion or pueblo where the industry is the next system but not organized. There is more confusion there is not too much is as much understanding as to how these centers can help individual companies. We hope to eliminate theirs by better communications by better advertising better publicity on the part of the sinners in their own areas. We have in Mexico side of the large industrial productivity center of Mexico City we have centers in Monterey in totally our own in Chihuahua in Ohio and in the only one of what. Presently we are hoping to in the future be able to open up a center in one heart perhaps another in us and then Pico and eventually the

chain will be completed we will have a center in each and every one of the large industrial areas of Mexico. How does the Alliance for Progress feel that this concept of the productivity center can be extended to the other Latin American countries. Yes as a matter of fact we have productivity centers and I believe nine other countries of Latin America which operate on a similar basis. It will vary from region to region according to the individual needs of the country. We have in the United States a very unique set up and that we have the chambers of commerce the tremendous assistance of the Small Business Administration of the U.S. government the Department of Commerce. We have tremendous grants for research for investigation both industrial and educational. These things do not exist in Latin America. The governments sometimes have a hard time meeting their own budgets without getting into

shall we say luxuries of industrial research an industrial product to very studies. So these are the places where we can help fill the gap with a very limited budget. And and actually speaking it's a tremendous investment are tremendous results with a very small investment on our part. Yes I was just going to comment that it doesn't seem that these would be luxuries to the contrary that almost being assessed cities for these countries that are working with tools that aren't quite up to the standard of the more industrialized nations and so on. I wonder Are is there any reason or do you find much resistance among manufacturers that are already operating in these countries to introduce new techniques are they willing to they're willing to they can be convinced that they will increase their production output and and their income however. The Mexican industrialist traditionally has been a rugged individualists he's gotten to where

he is by hard work and by. Taking on all newcomers and all comers also. But he is quite suspicious of any one organization trying to get him to share his knowledge or to pool his knowledge with other people or other persons especially those are his competitors. So. This is a new concept to him to try to get together with your competitors and discuss what's the best thing for the industry as a whole. You have never thought of industry in terms of regions or areas or sectors. It's always been how does that affect me. And for this reason he he is quite hesitant to do. Get involved in something at which at a later date he won't be able to get out of. And so he's a little bit suspicious of our motives he's a little bit

suspicious of the motives of an agency which is sponsored indirectly by the Mexican government he's always afraid that perhaps this might increase his taxes. My bring in government intervention into his into his every day job with those companies or with those manufacturing concerns that have had an experience with the center induced drug you find that they are repeat customers in some cases yes. And unfortunately in some cases Now sometimes the centers themselves are not. Are not equipped in the best way to give them the service that they want. In many cases many of these companies have had parent organizations in the United States or in Europe. Therefore they have a much better training procedures and and built in systems that we might be possible to give them with. With the limited facilities that the centers have.

However in most cases particularly those of the small and medium sized businesses they appreciate all the help that they get and they're eager for more. Through the centers we run a Technical Information Service which is perhaps isolated leader one of the most contributing. Factories for this industrial product of any assistance and free of charge we can we can provide the various industries and the various companies that make up an area technical information on on almost any type of query or question that they might have. We give them distribution of publications from the Small Business of business administration and these publications and technical inquiries are in Spanish and we supply them with technical books and their own specialized field. This at no cost to them. And as you know in a country in Mexico which has no public libraries to

speak of. As a matter of fact the only public library that exists in Mexico is the Benjamin Franklin library which is in Mexico City. So this is a.. An aid to help in a sector where there is no other available available source. So we are not covering the gap as we should but we are at least orienting people and making them realize that there are that there are ways of getting technical material of getting a bit more specialized knowledge in their own fields rather than just writing a broader or trying to get informed consultants. The name centering the liberal implies into the literal translation would be industrial center for productivity or implies that what you are doing is increasing the productivity with already existing equipment that's right. This is an operations research type of a function in other words it's not necessarily as I understand it the introduction of new machinery but rather

using the existing machinery in a more effective manner try new techniques new organization and methods of applying organizational methods to streamline established techniques. Determining why markets are the way they are what possible new chance of distribution could be given what an industrial safety factors are hindering better production. Are raising production costs and in general working with the equipment and the personnel that you have in some cases we are able to to increase personnel in some cases. We advised the manager that he should reduce his personnel in certain areas in order to to increase productivity. But in all cases we are using the existing facilities and of course we always try to convince management that in the long run its more money saving and more

economical if they invest in new machinery and up to date methods rather than to hold on to the levels which might have been established a hundred years ago. The problem with investing in new machinery. I might think would be that it would reduce the working force in IDS countries rather loath to do just that in other words you're looking for more ways to employ more people not less people. Well that's very true. Another factor that enters into this is that in Mexico you have to use short run. Production techniques. There is no outlet for the long run as we have in states where a company can produce while using the proverbial kitchen sinks by the thousands year after year after year. We cannot do that Mexico or in any of our Latin American countries. You might run kitchen sink for two months and then you have to go into your using galvanized iron or what have you you have to go into water receptacles and the buckets and into pots and pans.

And on a very limited basis a little bit of everything yak of all trades. Do your often find that the Latin American businessman regards the North American businessman as a competitor that he can't handle or that he doesn't want to handle. Do you mean this in Mexico or or in generally speaking. Well since your experience has been throughout Latin America possibly you could give us a general answer. Well the American businessman to the Latin American I would say in this my personal opinion is kind of a boogie man and that he has a tradition behind him which is very hard to equal. It's the all star type as like saying that the German is a good soldier are they. Chinese is a good cook. Most Latin Americans consider the American businessman to be an excellent field and not with with too many chinks in his armor. They psychologically

fear an American businessman because of his aggressiveness because of the better preparation because of the tremendous backing by his companies. And so psychologically many times they are defeated before they even tried to compete with the American organizations. Would you think that these Latin American businessmen would be be willing to accept as partners a North American businessman. Oh certainly they would be very happy and pleased to get an American to us as partners and they would be I think. It would be very excited about the prospects of getting new ideas and new philosophies into their own companies. There might be a little bit hesitant and in place perhaps fearing that eventually the American partner will would gobble them up like a like an octopus.

But if the case were of a minority American interest why this. Possibly this fear could be a limit that's right and this exists all over Latin America where you have the traditional 51 percent local capital for an Apperson American capitalism. This is worked out very very well and that you're using local talent which in many cases has been trained in the United States with American know how American techniques and apply to local situations adapted. And this has produced wonderful results. Well I realize that this next question is a loaded one in a sense but do you think that your program that is the one of technical assistance to industry should be cut back should it be increased. And if so if for either of these reasons why. Well of course like you said it's a loaded one and I'm very partial and prejudiced in a way since I am in the program but even if I weren't I would say this. Technical assistance is

one of the greatest tools we have on hand for the cost that it entails. In the Alliance for Progress we are we are very keen on loans to governments to develop large sectors in large areas and I'm sure and I know that that these are basic and that in the long run eventually these will be the salvation of many countries who are at the present do not have their own resources to develop themselves. However at the same time that you are helping the country in developing its resources and developing their potential. You have to help people. In elevating their own sense of belonging to this country their own sense of dignity their own sense of being accepted by society as a whole. These are they're the faces of this

type of development where technical assistance comes in because usually we will be helping. Secondary sectors will be helping. Minor area specialized pinpointed places where our money and our assistance will be greatly utilized and where the image of the United States or other programs that we are supporting will be disseminated among those people which make up the the people of a country. I don't think that a person who has been educated abroad or who has a master's degree or a Ph.D. in economics and who works for a local government has to be convinced too ardently that what we're trying to do is right or whatever I think that is the average John Doe or in this case one pet is on the street. That sometimes the only image that he receives of United States as that of the tourist who has of course saved up all year to go on a vacation and he's spending money a

little bit recklessly because this after all is part of saving up money and going on a vacation and in many cases he has no concept that we are trying to help him as an individual he might know that we gave his country a loan you will always wonder what's behind it what's the catch. However if we come to him and he is able to enroll in one of our courses he's able to get direct assistance he is able to increase his earnings. He's able to talk to Americans. Personally he's able to see how they work to find out that we too have our problems that we have our social and economic barriers and obstacles. He is unable to I think at least he will be more prone to judge us as individuals rather than just as a stereotyped national. Well Mr. Gillon it's certainly been a pleasure to talk with you. This has been an informative program Radio-TV Texas thanks you.

This is the last in a series of interviews conducted by Richard Ariano in Mexico. Mr. Ariano has been talking with Mr. Frankland Galland associated with the industrial program of the Agency for International Development. The Yankee dollar was produced by Arsene RS and directed by BW Crocker at radio television the University of Texas under a grant in aid from the National Association of educational broadcasters. This is the NEA E.B. Radio Network.