This article contends that the rapid development of Latin America and the Caribbean --a region rich in natural resources-- will depend on how fast it learns to industrialize and process its natural resources and to develop the necessary input suppliers, engineering services and equipment for this. Consequently, this will not be a form of development based on the mere extraction of natural resources, as at present, but rather one based on the processing of such resources and the development of the activities that naturally tend to spring up and concentrate around this base (production complexes or clusters);. It will therefore be different from the experience of the recently industrialized Asian countries, most of which have few natural resources, and will resemble instead that of the resource-rich countries which are now highly developed, such as the Scandinavian countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.