 Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Carl Meacham. I am the director of the America's program here at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, CSIS. This is a great day for CSIS. This is a great day for the America's program. We have the President of Chile. We are delighted to have him here, President of Chile, Seratian Piñera, for today's Statesman's Forum. With the President's term ending this year, it's important to note the advances that Chile has made during his term. In particular, during the last three years, Chile has averaged 5.8 percent economic growth, one of the highest in Latin America, and the highest of the 34 countries belonging to the OECD. Per capita GDP, which stood at $15,000 in 2009, reached nearly 20,000 this year. And under the Piñera government, more than 800,000 new jobs have been created. The strength of the economy has also witnessed a boom in government revenue, allowing it to cut taxes, as well as strengthen social programs and invest in infrastructure. On paper, it's clear most Chileans can easily say that they live better today, or much better today, than when President Piñera started his term three years ago. Yet challenges remain. For one, inequality remains stubbornly high, and social stratification is still a problem. Education reform is still pending. Energy remains a perennial issue, and Chile's growing economy means that demand will continue to rise. Securing energy supplies will continue to be a challenge, and the way in which that demand is met continues to produce stark divisions. Chile is known for its strengths, it's one of the most stable countries in the region, it has one of the strongest economies, the most free trade agreements of any country in the world, it has one of the world's most business-friendly environments, and its citizenry enjoy higher standard of living than many of the countries in the Americas and in the world. So then, when greeted with pictures of ongoing protests, Americans find it hard to believe and understand what all the fuss is about. In the United States, with an improving but still challenged economy, many view Chile's protests somewhat quizzically, asking if the economy is doing so well and jobs are being created, what exactly are Chileans complaining about? I hope President Pñera can bring answers to this and many other important questions in his presentation today entitled, Chile's Path to Development, Social and Economic Challenges. The President, of course, needs no introduction. Before his election to the presidency, he was the President of the National Renewal Party from 2001 to 2004, Chile's center-right party. He was also a senator from 1990 to 1998 as well. Prior to his public sector service, he was well known for a successful career in the private sector. Everyone should have a copy of the President's bio, so in the interest of time, I will stop there. You can see more details on the President's distinguished career. One important ground rule to go over before the President gets started is that there will be a Q&A following the President's speech. The President has actually said that he will take questions directly from the crowd, which is different from what we had said originally, which is actually very positive. So we appreciate that. And I would say that when you have a question, please identify yourself. There will be someone from the America staff there with a microphone to help you. So you're heard in the audio and we will do as many questions as time permits. Again, I'm thankful for everyone to be here today. On a personal note, I was raised in Chile. My mother was from Chile and I visit frequently. So for me, it's a little bit like having my own President here today. So I'm very happy to be able to present to you all the President of Chile, his excellence, Excellency, Sebastián Piñera. Thank you very much, Carl. For me, it's a great opportunity to be in front of you in this Center for Strategic and International Studies, to talk about Chile, but also to take your questions. And I think that the best question is the most direct and frank question and the same thing with the answers. Let me tell you a little bit about Chile. Chile was the poorest Spanish colony. It was isolated from the world by the driest desert in the north, the mighty Andins in the east, the eternal ice in the south, and the Pacific Ocean in the west. But despite that, Chile has managed to become now the country with the highest per capita income in Latin America. And I think that we are the closest, we are the country with the better chance to become a developed country and defeat poverty and overcome underdevelopment before the end of this decade. How did we do it? First of all, I would like to share with you that we have had to face two big challenges in the last 25 years. The first one was a political transition from a military government to a democratic government, and we did it. We did it in a very peaceful and wise way, because normally this kind of transition happened in the middle of political crisis, economic chaos, and social riots. It wasn't the case of Chile. We were able to reach an agreement on how to make that transition, and I think that's why it has been so successful. But that's the old transition. It has already been done. We are now facing a new challenge, a new transition, which is much more important and eventually more difficult than the old one, how to transform Chile from a developing country into a developed country, how to overcome underdevelopment, how to defeat poverty, how to create a democratic society with a better equality of opportunities, and that's the mission that we have undertaken. Three years ago, when we came into office, we had to face many, many problems. First of all, 11 days before the inauguration, Chile was hit by, which was then the fifth worst earthquake and tsunami in the history of mankind. Some months later, Japan was also hit by another earthquake and therefore ours became the sixth worst one. It was a real devastating natural phenomenon, much worse than Katrina and many others that you've known. In a few minutes, we lost. Almost 17% of our infrastructure and it was so devastating that in a few minutes we lost one out of three hospitals, one out of three schools, dams, airport ports, buildings, houses and therefore we had to add to our responsibility, not only to comply with our government program but also to reconstruct the country in four years. That was the commitment that we made at that time. That was the first difficulty. The second one was that we inherited an economy that was losing its growth capacity, its job creation capacity, investment was going down, exports were stagnated, poverty was going up and therefore we needed a very dramatic change. The third difficulty was that we have been in the middle of an international economic crisis ever since we started our government. Right now, Europe is in a recession. The U.S. recovery has not been as strong as it used to be. The Asian giants are losing momentum and even in Latin America, there are many countries that are suffering a lot because of this economic crisis. And on top of that, we had to face one of the worst drought that we have had in Chile. This is the fourth year of drought in Chile. But despite all this difficulty, which represent no excuse, we had a government program, which was a very ambitious one. Our main goal was to transform Chile within this decade into a developed country and defeat poverty and create a more inclusive society with better income distribution and better equality of opportunities. What have we accomplished in the last three years? Carl mentioned some of those accomplishments, but really we have been able to double our growth rate from roughly 3% to roughly 6%. And we have been growing on average close to 6%. We have been able also to double our job creation capacity. We have created more than 800,000 jobs in three years. That's equivalent to something like 20 million jobs in three years in the U.S. if you compare the size of the two countries. We have been able also to increase wages and salary very significantly to reduce poverty and inequalities. And at the same time, we are taking huge reforms which were absolutely necessary to pave the way in order to make feasible that big challenge of transforming Chile into a real developed country. Our program, therefore, in terms of economic goals, was ambitious, but I think that it has also been very successful. Today, Chile is a different country. We are very close to full employment. The problem in Chile is not how to find a job. The problem in Chile is how to find a work. And that makes a huge difference because we have known period in which the unemployment rate in Chile was close to 30% and the difference between one country and the other is dramatic. But on top of the economic aspects, we are undertaking some huge reforms. One of them is the educational reform. We are fully aware that besides having a stable democracy, an open market, competitive and integrated economy and a modern state, if we want to become a developed country, we will need to undertake some very important structural reforms or if you want, build the new pillars of development. One of them was the need to change the quality of our human capital and therefore to undertake a very profound educational reform. And we're working on that. In 2009, we were investing $8.9 billion in education. Now we are investing more than $14 billion. It means 50% more in a three-year period. We have, I don't want to bother you with the details, but this investment has changed many, many things. Now we have almost universal coverage at preschool levels and we are moving in that direction. The same thing with school level and also at the university level, 50% of the Chilean students in that age are attending tertiary education, university or technical or professional education. We have been able to triple the amount of scholarships that are being granted to the students. Right now, every student in Chile knows that no matter what his economic condition is, he will have access to funding in order to attend universities or tertiary schools, education. 60% of them are receiving a scholarship and the next 30% are receiving a very subsidized loan because it has a very subsidized interest rate which is about one third or one fourth of what should have been according to market rates and the payment for that loan is contingent on income. They only pay 10% of their income, whatever it is. So only 10% of the Chilean students have to pay for their own higher education because preschool and school is free and mandatory and therefore we are creating through this educational reform a very powerful instrument to have better equality of opportunity and also to label the field so that the quality of the socioeconomic conditions of the family would not be so determined as they were in the past for their own future. That's one major reform. The second pillar that we are building is that we are trying to triple our investment in science and technology. We are fully aware that we arrive late at the industrial revolution. That's why we are an undeveloped country. We won't arrive late at this new revolution which is knocking our doors since a couple of decades which is in this new society that is emerging, the society of information and knowledge which will be extremely generous with those countries that want to take those opportunities but could be indifferent or even cruel with those countries that just want to look at it. That's a major second reform that we are doing in trying to increase the amount of investment, public and private investment in science and technology. The third one, we are trying to boost entrepreneurship capacity and innovation capacity because we want to unleash the forces of freedom, private initiative, creativity because those are the only real and exhaustive and real renewal factors or instrument that we can count on. And finally, we have a very strong commitment not only with economic growth. We also have a very strong commitment with defeating poverty and we have set as a goal to defeat extreme poverty within the period of our government for years and to create all the conditions to be able to defeat poverty at all during the rest of this decade. And in this area, we also have been very successful because it's not only economic growth. We now have a much better income distribution. We have more equality of opportunity. We have less poverty and we are moving in the right direction. But there was another reform which was very important for us which was the reform in the political field. And therefore we have undertaken very structured and very profound reforms. For instance, we were able to add five million Chileans. We gave to five million Chileans the capacity to vote because before the system, you had to register. Without registration, you couldn't vote. We changed the system to an automatic registration and a voluntary vote. So before this reform which took place in 2011, only eight million Chileans had the capacity to vote. Now 13 million Chileans have the capacity to vote. We have implemented the primary system, not equivalent to yours because it happens everything in one day simultaneously for all the parties. So people can have a better chance to express their opinion and voices in the selection of candidate. Actually, the first primary lecture will take place in a few days, June the 30, and will elect for the first time through the primary day presidential candidates of all the political coalitions which are basically two big political coalitions, the one that is in government and the opposition. The only difference with the opposition are now they have incorporated the Communist Party into the opposition coalitions. That's something which is new in Chile that had never happened before. So basically, I agree with you Carl, that Chile today is in better shape than three years ago and people are better off. They have more jobs, more than 54% of the new jobs that have been created have gone to women, and therefore they have increased the participation, the labor force dramatically in the last three years. They have better wages and salaries. I think that we have a better educational system and a better health system because that's another reform that we undertaken. We have increased substantially the amount of money that we're investing in constructing the health infrastructure in forming more medical personnel and improving the technology and the instrument that can be used in order to provide good health services to everybody. Of course, I don't pretend with this that people have to be happy with everything, but we have to put it in some framework to understand what is going on. In Chile, we have almost six million students. 3.5 of them go to school, about more than one half go to primary school, to preschool and more or less 1.1 go to university or tertiary education. And of course, we have had and we will keep having around 50 to 100,000 of them, which are protesting because they want to express their voice. And I think that's natural in a democratic society that we agree with that. They have the right to protest. They have the right to make their own proposal. We have no complaint with us. The only complaint is that they have to do it within the framework of the law and the rule of law. And therefore they have to do it peacefully without molotov bombs, without throwing acid to the policemen which is something that is happening very often in Chile. And we don't agree with that part of the manifestation. Therefore we are, of course, trying to combat that with all the rules and all the instruments of the rule of law. But of course, the Chile is a free country. People can protest. They can express their voices. We have prepress, we have freedom of expression and that's something that we not only allow, but we really are willing to fight for it and to protect it and to boost it. And, of course, this year we will have an election. And people will have the chance to make their own decisions as they have had that chance almost during all our history. Our democracy is a very old one, not as old as the American one. It started in 1810. And since I think that Chilean parliament is the third or fourth oldest parliament in the world. Normally we have lived in a democratic system except for a very few exceptions. The last one was the military government and the coup d'etat that took place in 1973 and lasted until 1990. But now we are living in a different world, in a different country. We are facing different challenges and therefore we are convinced that if we keep working in this direction, having a very strong commitment with democracy, with human rights, with the rule of law, also with an honest government and, of course, with freedom of expression. And at the same time, we keep growing at 6% and we keep creating jobs and we keep increasing salaries and reducing poverty and inequalities and we keep improving the quality of our institutions and our democracy, I think that we will be able to achieve a goal that has been the goal or the dream of all our generations. But even though they have dreamed with that country, they have never been able to accomplish or to reach to that situation. So I hope, and this is our most important commitment, that before the end of this decade, Chile will become a developed country, which means much more than exceeding $24,000 per capita income, which is more than what countries like Portugal, Greece have now. And if Spain continues in its way, maybe even Spain will be below that level. It's much more than that because we are looking for a kind of development which is much more wide and deep that just achieving 24,000 per capita income. We are looking at better democracy, more respect for human rights, better equality of opportunities. We are also looking for a country that can guarantee everybody good quality of education. In Chile, preschool and school education is not only free, it's mandatory. We don't have exactly the same with the university level because there is not mandatory and it's not free unless you receive a scholarship which is the case of 60% of our students. So we are convinced that Chile, even though it was the poorest colony, Spanish colony 200 years ago, is very close to become the first, hopefully not the only Latin American country able to get rid of under development, to get rid of poverty which has been part of our life since our independence. And we are so close and we have worked so hard to get here that I am convinced that we have no right to fail. But we are fully aware of something which is called the middle income countries trap. There are many countries that have yet to appoint similar to ours and have not been able to cross that desert. For instance, if you take into account how many countries have been able to defeat under development in the last 50 years after World War II, only a few of them, Japan, Korea, Singapore and maybe Taiwan, and not more than that. And therefore it's not easy to get rid of under development. It's not easy to defeat poverty. Since we are so close to it and we have worked so hard to get to where we are right now, I have the impression that we have no right to fail now and every mountaineer knows that when you are trying to reach a summit in the mountains, the second part is the most beautiful one, but it's also the hardest one. And we still have to work very hard in order to achieve that goal. That's why what we're trying to convince Chilean people is that democracy means rights, but also duties. And I think that many people in Chile think that we are already a rich country and they want to live like a rich country. The easiest answer on our part would be to say yes to everybody. If we would say yes to all the requests that we are receiving every day from the students, they want free education for everybody with no requirements. I don't think that's the right solution. I don't think it's that the first solution. They want the private sector to get out of the educational system. We don't agree with that. We think that we should have both a public and a private sector and the government is responsible for financing all the students that need those funds and parents or students have the right to choose whether to what school they want to go or what career they want to study. So my final remarks is that we will have to keep working very hard. We have to keep our, not only our commitment with development, but also doing and taking hard decision, difficult decision in order to be able to achieve that level. Because otherwise we might suffer exactly the same source and the same faith that so many countries have been in the same situation as Chile's now and now have come back to under development and poverty. And finally one words about the relation between the US and Chile. We have had a very sound and very fruitful relationship. We signed a free trade agreement in 2004. And since then we have more than tripled our trade between the US and Chile. At that time it was a little bit more than $8 billion. Today it's more than $27 billion. And let me tell you something that the US has a surplus in its trade with Chile. There are very few countries, very few country with which the US has a surplus. One of them is Chile because you are exporting something like 1.7 billion to us and importing from us around 1 billion. So you have a 1.7 billion dollars surplus. So that's something which is very curious because normally you have deficit with the rest of the world. That's why you have such a huge commercial deficit in your country. And another thing we have been extremely responsible in terms of fiscal and macroeconomic policy. We have a balanced budget. And we have a budget rule by which when things are going too well, we are forced to save in order to be able to face the hard times. Basically we save in sunny days in order to be able to survive in rainy days. So now our external debt is negative. We are not a net debtor to the world. We are a net creditor to the world. So we are contributing for the equilibrium of your balance of payment. At the same time, we are funding part of your fiscal deficit. So we are making our own contribution. And we are happy with that. And we are happy with that because we are convinced that the only way to reach the level of development that we have been looking for since our independence is by behaving and acting in a very responsible and sound way. And I hope that in the elections that will take place by the end of this year, people will realize that they are much better off than what they were only three years ago. And therefore we have a chance to continue in this marvelous and so exciting job of leading our country. Leading. I don't know why you didn't even use your notes for your speech. So. I didn't know. I'm gonna open it up for questions but I'm gonna make one question before I start. And I think you very aptly answered some of the questions in my opening remarks so I appreciate that. Chili's doing all these things internationally. You have the Alliance of the Pacific. You have this announcement that I guess is imminent on Visa Waiver, which you can elaborate on. Can you talk a little bit about your vision for Chili going forward after this period? You have the most free trade agreements of any country in the world. You are definitely looking outward. You're looking into Asia. You're looking at Europe. You're looking all over the world. What's next? For a long time ago we made a decision which was based on an agreement. Since Chili was such a small country, the only way to become a developed country was by opening up the economy. And we started by reducing unilaterally our tariff barriers and then signing free trade agreements with countries and then multilateral agreements. And right now we have free trade agreements with 62 countries in the world that represent more than 80% of world GMP. The US, Canada, the European community, China, India, Japan, Korea, you name it. So that has worked very well for us. And right now we have just created a year ago a new alliance which is called the Pacific Alliance between Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chili which has been extremely successful. It's a very young alliance. But it's much more than just a free trade agreement. It's really a commitment to create a very deep and wide integration process between these four countries. We already, of course, we have free trade among us but we also have integrated our financial markets. We have free movement of people. We are working together to penetrate the Asian markets and therefore that's an alliance between four countries that not by chance are the four fastest growing countries in America. And I say that because in Latin America you have different models. One model is the one that is being followed by the Pacific Alliance countries which is based in democracy, freedom of press, rule of law, respect for human rights, and at the same time a free, open market economy. You have other models. For instance, the Alba countries, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba following a different path. I'm convinced that at least for Chile that we are following the right path. On top of that, we are now very much involved and committed with the Trans-Pacific Partnership which is based on an agreement that was created by four countries, Singapore, New Zealand, Brunei, and Chile, which is called the P-4. Because that was the first agreement that will join countries in both sides of the Pacific Ocean. Now with the US, with Canada, with Mexico, hopefully Japan, the Trans-Pacific Partnership will become, if we are successful in achieving that agreement, the largest free trade zone in the world. So our commitment to free trade integration and globalization is a very strong one. And one thing which is very important is very much shared among all the different political forces because it was started during the military government. It was profound and strengthened during the government after we recover our democracy, and we are following exactly the same path. So that's another thing. With the US, we have a very good relationship. We have a free trade agreement since 2004. I was telling you that has been very successful. Right now we are trying to work in many other areas. We have, for instance, strategic alliance with two states in the US, California and Massachusetts, where we are trying to put forces together in order to strengthen the development of sectors like energy, science, technology, education. We have something which is called the Start Up Program by which we try to attract to Chile entrepreneurs. And we give them a grand $40,000 plus a visa so they can develop their entrepreneurship projects in Chile. We have got more than 1,000 successful projects in that program with more than 36 countries, many of them. Many of those projects have come from US citizens. And we are now working, we had lunch today with Secretary of State John Kerry and we receive a very good news from him because probably very soon Chile will enter the visa waiver program by which Chilean will be able to come to the US without needing a visa if they come as tourists for up to 90 days. So we want to keep moving because we understand that we are just entering this new society of knowledge and information. And therefore there are so many things that we will have to do to keep going in improving the quality of our human capital, to keep doubling or tripling our investment in science and technology, to keep creating new entrepreneurs. For instance, in the last three years we have been able to create 170 new entrepreneurs, which is equivalent to more than half a million, more than five millions entrepreneurs in the US. So that's another area where we have to put a lot of effort and commitment. And the fourth one is that we need to create a more inclusive society. So for us, defeating poverty is a must. It's a moral must, it's an economic must, it's a social must. So even though we have made a lot of progress, we are fully aware that we haven't finished our job and therefore there are so many things that will have to be done in the future, that's why we are so enthusiastic and we have nine months ahead in this government. And in nine months, you can do many things, including a baby. We're going to open it up to some questions here from the audience. Why don't we start over here? Microphone, here we go. Congratulations, Mr. President. Congratulations to you, your team, and the dynamic people of that wonderful country of yours. And you talked about the accomplishments you've obtained and your plans for the future. You did, however, mention the idea that there's some people that are not buying on to this wonderful vision of yours and maybe us up here too. You mentioned Alba, you mentioned Argentina with that wonderful lady that seems to be in serious trouble. You mentioned Venezuela run by a former bus driver. You mentioned Cuba, we don't need to go into that. Are these people going to get the word and understand your vision and evolve towards the 21st century? Or are they going to be stuck in the mud as they are now? I'll take some more questions right over here. We're going to wait for the microphone. We'll do three questions and then we'll... My name is Miguel Schloss. My question is very simple because it is the same but applied to Chile within the country. I am enthusiastic about all what you said. What I wonder is whether people in Chile or a large mass of them are getting vertical with all this speed and all this change and really want to stop this process and to breathe again and maybe get into what you call the middle income trap. Is it possible and if so, what if anything can be done to prevent it? Gentlemen over here. Hi, my name is Diego Rivera. I'm a PhD student here in DC. You talked about the education and it seems like the left and the right coalition seem to push that the education coverage has gone up in the past 20, 25 years. In this pursuit of leveling the playing field at the beginning it seems that the expansion in coverage is not enough, it's a requirement but not sufficient to level the playing field and quality is a major obstacle in the way. I wonder if as an economist that has been a politician and not a politician who's an economist, what is your take on what is the most important factor for this leveling playing field to be achieved? Well, let me take the first question first. I tend to think that Latin American countries are looking very carefully at what is happening with the Pacific Alliance because they are realizing that here we have four countries that represent one third of the population but do represent more than 50%, 55% of total Latin American trade. They realize that they are the fastest growing countries in the region and they see on the other hand that the other model is getting nowhere. You can see in terms of growth, in terms of job creation, what is happening in Venezuela, what is happening in Argentina, what is happening in many of these countries, they are not really moving at the pace and the speed that they need. So I think that the message is getting through and one good demonstration of this is how many countries have shown the interest in the Pacific Alliance. Now we have a lot of observers. Not only from Latin America, we have observers like Canada, now the US, France, Spain, Portugal and even some countries in Latin America like Ecuador have decided to join the group as an observer. So I think that it is a question of time to realize that when you have two visions, one is based on a real traditional Western democracy and the other one based on a special kind of democracy. In one case you respect freedom of press, in the other one you don't. In one case you are based on a free market economy where entrepreneurship and innovation is a key engine that moves the country ahead. In other case the state or the government is the key force. At the end of the day I think that has already been proved all over the world. Remember that the competition after the Second World War between one system, the Western system, BSAV, the communist system, to some extent was a competition that didn't end in a tie. It was very clear that one system was better than the other. But it doesn't mean that the system where we are in is perfect. We have to be extremely careful in improving the quality of our democratic system. We have to be extremely careful in level, the playing field in order to have more equality of opportunity. That's why we're putting so much commitment, efforts and resources in obtaining these goals. But I think that they are listening and they are getting the message. It will take time, but at the end of the day, I think that the results, the hard facts are so clear that the message will get through. With respect to Chile support and what might happen. Of course, it's very easy to go and say, look, you have the right to have free education with no requirements. You have to write to have free health. You have the right to have free housing. You have the right to have free everything. But you have no duty. Could be a very attractive political message, but it doesn't work. That's why we're trying to convince people that nothing happens by chance. If you want to harvest, you first need to plant the seed. So we have been planting the seeds and we are still planting the seed for the future. But of course, a lot of people will try to take advantage of this economic situation and say or promise to people that they have the right and they deserve everything without any effort, without any commitment. But at the end of the day, people are very smart and I think that they will make the right decisions because in this moment, that's what we're discussing. Some people are saying, look, you have the right to everything and the best way to provide all the goods and services that the government gets in and they start producing everything and they will give everything for free to everybody. It's an attractive measure in principle, but it's not the right solution for a country like Chile and I think it's not the right solution for any country in the world. So of course, when people were very poor, they don't complain, they don't march, they don't protest, they don't ask. When they overcome that poverty situation, they immediately start asking for new, for a new quality of life, for new goals and that's right, that's part of progress. So I think that to some extent, what you are seeing in Chile that the protest is a cost of our success because today, for instance, our middle class represent almost 70% of the Chilean people or more and of course, once you become part of the middle class, you want to improve the quality of your housing, you want to improve the quality of your education, you want to improve the quality of your health and that's something which is happening but we cannot go faster than our possibilities. For a president, it's very easy to say yes to everybody. It would be so simple. We have the resources, we don't have to borrow money, we have the money, we have foreign savings because since we have to accumulate when the price of copper or the situation of the Chilean economy is good, now we are accumulating. We have more than $22 billion in foreign reserves in, besides what the central bank has, these are government reserves in a sovereign front. So we have the money. So we could provide a kind of heaven if we wanted using all these reserves, but we understand that that's not the right way to keep moving ahead. And that would be a feast for a year but then we'll have to pay the cost the years after that. So we think that the only way to get the support of the people is by explaining them that we were the poorest colony. We were among the poorest country in Latin America. Only a few decades ago, now we are leading the region and we are very close to overcome many of our, many of our problems like poverty and inequality, but we have not yet get there. And we'll never get there. We always will be looking for something better. We visit on Saturday Annapolis and we heard again those words by John Paul Jones. I haven't yet even start fighting. That's what we said or something like that. What did John Paul Jones say? That's what he said. You should know better your own history. So we are just starting in this great a magnificent adventure of transforming a country from an underdeveloped one into a developed one. And that's something that really I think will convey the support of a majority of Chileans to keep moving in that direction. Finally, with respect to education, we are fully aware that it's not just the problem of coverage. Actually, we don't have a problem of coverage in school education because our coverage is more than 95% and we don't have a problem of coverage in university level because more than 50% of our students don't go to university. Our problem of coverage was in preschool education and therefore we have put all our efforts and resources and commitment in guaranteeing to everybody that they will have access to free, good quality preschool education. We know that they don't march, they don't protest, they don't make press conference, but we are fully aware that that's where we can make the real difference. That's where we have to start to level the playing field. That's where we will really create a country with more equality of opportunity. And therefore the budget has grown in the fastest way is preschool education because we have increased, we are almost close to double the coverage of preschool education and we have increased dramatically the quality by putting more standards and a higher and better professor and all those things. But we still need to go a long way before we can say that we are guaranteeing quality education to everybody in Chile because even the coverage is very good. Even the quality compared with Latin America is very good. We, if we compare ourselves with the OECD countries, of course we still have to improve dramatically the quality of education if we really want to become a developed country in its full mean. Right here in front. So we'll take three again and then we'll... Yes, it's a pleasure to hear you. There is concern in some quarters about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. As I understand it, the AFL-CIO has some serious reservations. There are those who are concerned that certain labor standards can be contested in the course of implementing the partnership that environmental standards could be in jeopardy. I wonder if you'd comment on some of these related issues to the implementation of the TPP. Right here, right over here. The woman with the sunglasses. Thank you, Mr. President. My name's Cornelia Weiss and I'm taking oral exams from a Nepion Thursday and so I'm asking you this question to prepare for my exam and that is, what are the geopolitical and international relations implications and consequences of the Pacific Alliance? Thank you. Okay, I'm gonna go all the way in the back to gentlemen with the hat on. Thanks, Mr. Meacham. If you could stand up, sir? I'd be blocking his shot, I think. Okay. Muchas gracias, señor Presidente. My name is Esteban. I work in a study here in the city. One of your fellow former Harvard alum made pretty disparaging remarks about Chile many, many decades ago. But as Carl noted, now it's sort of a set of arrows pointing outward and especially to Canada. Could you amplify Chile's relationship with Canada these days and some of the recent developments of the past, I think really month and a half? And another question, there are a number of, with all due respect to the older attendees here, there are a number of young people of Chilean descent in today's audience. So how would Presidente Piñera and Dr. Piñera go about recruiting them to return home and helping to build and continue the economic development? Thanks. Yeah, I know, but the key is first question. Well, with respect to the TPP, of course, it's a very challenging and difficult task because you have to put together and reach agreements with 11 countries and when Japan enters, it will be 12 countries. We have made a lot of progress but we are still facing some problems. There is oppositions, opposition in some countries. For instance, I had the chance to talk to the Prime Minister of Japan and the main opposition in Japan is the agricultural sector. And I remember I told him, look, the agricultural sector represent less than 4% of your GMP. And if you don't enter into these kind of integration efforts, you will really be wasting or losing a lot of opportunities. Japan now has decided to get into the TPP. We will have to agree some labor and environmental minimum standards. It's not a problem for Chile because we have a very strict and very up-to-date labor and environmental legislation. There are other countries that are opposing this. For instance, I understand that countries like Vietnam are very careful about these kind of agreements. And the other area where we need to reach agreement which we haven't been able to reach those agreements up to now is in the intellectual property, pharmaceutical products, items. And therefore, we know that we will have to face a lot of opposition. But we are also convinced that the TPP is the right thing to do. Particularly since the World Trade Organization is stuck, it's not moving anywhere. And therefore by doing this, we will be creating not only the largest free trade zone in the world, but also we will be increasing the opportunities to create jobs and growth for every country. This is not a question that some countries are helping other countries. All of us are helping ourselves and helping the other countries because we believe in free trade. With respect to the Pacific Alliance, it will have a lot of implications. First of all, I've never seen an experience that in so little time has accomplished so much as the Pacific Alliance. It was born less than a year ago and we already have reached so many agreements. As I was telling you before, we have a free trade zone with no tariff for more than 90% of our products and services. We have already integrated our financial sectors. We are exchanging students. We are joining forces and for instance, we are opening embassies and export promotion agencies together in many, many countries in the world because the four countries have exactly the same principle and the same vision of how to reach development. And I'm convinced that sooner or later many countries will want to join this Pacific Alliance. Already we have two candidates, Costa Rica and Panama and we have 16 observers that are showing their interest. And therefore I think that it will have a lot of implications. It's just starting but it will have a lot of implications because I think that the Pacific Alliance is proving and will keep proving that Latin American countries if they do the right things are able to grow in a very solid and sustainable way and are able to get rid of underdeveloped poverty. And that eventually will be the most important heritage of the Pacific Alliance. With respect to Canada, we do have a free trade agreement with Canada too. Actually it was the first free trade agreement signed by Chile. And since then we have signed 61 more agreements with 61 more countries. And with Canada we also share the basics, values and visions and principles. That's why we have a very strong relation with Canada. We are now trying to start a strategic relation with one of the provinces of Canada in the western Ontario, British Columbia. And we just met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. And really we are looking to many more progress and we're looking forward because we have been able to create a very good understanding and a very good working relationship with Canada. And finally with respect to recruiting Chilean students, right now we are sending more and more students from Chile to study abroad. We used to have only 300 scholarships for PhDs and degrees like that. Now we have 3000 scholarships. And therefore right now we're in the process of sending our students abroad. At the same time we are trying to attract not only entrepreneurs but also to attract our own students and most of them are coming back. We just did a survey and 95% had the intention to come back to Chile because they know that in Chile they will have great opportunities and if they can have the best opportunities in their own country it's the best for them. But at the same time we are trying to attract foreign students to come to study to Chilean universities because the direct contact of people to people is a key aspect of a real integration and it's a very good instrument to integrate Chile to the world as we are trying to do and we know that we will have to create the conditions for Chilean students to come back. Fortunately up to now they are coming back and not only they are coming back but many of them are coming back and are willing to work for the government which is another change in the sense that they are very motivated and committed and they are contributing to the effort that we are doing to change our country to the best. I'm gonna reserve my right as director of the program to ask you one last question. And I would have to write. No, no, don't write. I would have to write to give you the last answer. Okay. Okay. So this is the end. You're in the end or the final portion of your administration. You've had all kinds of things. Big challenges from the earthquake to the miners, these economic successes that you've had opening up Chile, some of the challenges that you have talked about education, energy. What advice would you give the president that would be coming in or elected in November? Good. Well, by the way, the miners experience was something which was extremely motivating for the whole country. Because this accident happened and these 33 miners were caught in a small mine in the driest desert of the world more than 2,000 feet down the earth. At the beginning, we didn't know where they were. We didn't know where they were alive or dead. But we had, from the very first moment, I remember expressing that I made a very strong commitment with the country. We were going to do whatever was necessary to search for them, to find them and to rescue them. I remember that when I came back to Chile because I was in Colombia, immediately I went to the mine. Many of my advisors told me don't go there because nothing good will come out of it. I went there and I met with the families. And I said, look, we don't know where they are. We don't know how to rescue them. We don't know whether they are dead or alive, but I can guarantee only one thing. We will treat them as if they were our own sons. We will do whatever is necessary to find and rescue them. And we did it. So it was not only a question of searching, finding and rescuing 33 miners. It was a real commitment with the value of human life. And that's why the whole country united behind these cars. And eventually the whole world, because I was very impressed when I've been visiting other countries, how everybody was so much involved and so much committed with this effort to save the life of 33 people. So we didn't spare any effort. I remember that I call many presidents, among them the President of the United States, in order to ask for help. Because we want to have the best technology, the best instrument, the best equipment in order to be successful in this mission. And it was a very good thing for the country because we realized that together with faith, with commitment, we were able to achieve great goals. And also it was very good for the image of Chile around the world. With respect to advice to the future President of Chile, I will give maybe only one piece of advice. That when you are president, you don't have to choose always the easiest way. Most of the time you have to choose the hardest way. Because when we have a presidential system, and Chile is a very presidential system, the president has a lot of power, you are responsible for what is going on in your country. Many people can be very irresponsible and they can ask or they can act in a very demagogic way, not the president. When the president forgets its duty, the country don't move forward but backwards. So I would say that we are in a very special moment of our history. We are, I won't say that prosperity is around the corner, I think that, who said that? Truman, who said that? A US president said that. I think it was Roosevelt, or Hoover, President Hoover. He was a little bit wrong because he was not that near. But in our case, we are so close to reach a level of development. I think Piñera said that. You know, I tend to quote Sampo, and my son, Christopher, who is here, he said, as Piñera says and Sampo repeated. So my piece of advice is that now we need a very strong president with a very tough character. He will have to be able to resist a lot of pressures and temptation because if you start saying yes to everybody in order to become popular, you will be popular one day but you will not do or perform your duty. Thank you. I just want to thank you all for coming. I hope you enjoyed today's event and I welcome you to the next CSIS event. Thank you very much.