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Chile: Countries
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Chile is the world’s longest country – north to south. Chileans have a renowned reputation for achievement in many cultural fields. Literature, social science, and fine arts are considered prestigious areas of study. Family respect and loyalty are primary concerns in Chile, even taking precedence over business responsibilities. Chile has a stellar track record for international trade. As an exporting nation, Chile competes with countries beyond its Latin American neighborhood.
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Chile, which claims a part of the Antarctic continent, is the longest country on earth. The Atacama Desert, in the north of the country, is the driest place of the earth. The rain there is under 0.05 mm per year. The center of Chile, with the two cities Santiago and Valparaiso, has a Mediterranean climate with average temperatures of 28°C in January and 11°C in July. In the middle of Chile, the country is very fertile.
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Chile has one of the region’s most dynamic and promising telecom markets. A high level of maturity has been achieved through investment, competition and innovation. The telecom sector was completely privatised in 1990, and is very open to competition and foreign participation. The country has one of the least-regulated telecom market in the region, with full competition in all areas. Chile was the second country in the region (Mexico was the first) to have free trade agreements with the major western economies. A mobile access fee structure issued by the regulator in January 2004 is gradually reducing fixed-to-mobile interconnection fees by 26.5% over five-year, while a May 2004 Decree is raising the interconnection rates that incumbent fixed-line telco Telefónica CTC charges its competitors by 39.6%.
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Chile has a population of nearly 14 million people with almost 5 million located in the capital city, Santiago. It has an ethnic composition of 95 percent mestizo (of mixed European and Indian blood), 3 percent Indian (mostly Araucanian), and less than 2 percent are solely of European descent. Because of the geography of the area, the country has experienced a large degree of isolation and, as a result, is more ethnically homogeneous than most of South America. The Republic of Chile is a multiparty republic with two legislative houses, the 48-seat Senate and the 120-seat Chamber of Deputies. The president is the chief of state as well as the head of government.
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During 2006, Chile imported U.S. $26 billion from the Americas, representing 54% of total imports, followed by Asia at 22%, and Europe at 16%. Mercosur members were the main suppliers of imports to Chile at U.S. $9.1 billion, followed by the United States with U.S. $5.5 billion and the European Union with U.S. $5.2 billion. From Asia, China was the most important exporter to Chile, with goods valued at U.S. $3.6 billion. Year-on-year growth in imports was especially strong from a number of countries—Ecuador (123.9%), Thailand (72.1%), Korea (52.6%), and China (36.9%).
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Until 1973 Chile largely avoided the military coups that had beset other Latin American countries. That year a military regime seized power and suppressed Chile’s democratic institutions until democratic elections were restored in 1989. At the beginning of the 21st century, Chile was still struggling to deal with the legacy of its military rule.
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