The Chilean government’s foreign investment promotion agency, InvestChile, presented a portfolio of 150 projects worth more than US$18,000 million in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Sao Paulo. The activities were organized in close collaboration with the Chilean Embassy in Brazil.

This week InvestChile held its “Roadshow LatAm” in Brazil, continuing the agency’s focus on attracting investment from countries within the region that began in July with promotion events in Peru and Colombia. The activities in Brazil took place in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Sao Paulo and were attended by more than 100 representatives of Brazilian and foreign companies with a presence in that country, from the technology, services, transport, infrastructure, mining, energy, commerce and industrial sectors.

On the occasion, the agency presented a portfolio of 150 public projects up until 2023, worth more than US$18,600 million, in sectors such as infrastructure, tourism, mining and energy. InvestChile also provided information about future tenders in areas that include lithium production with added value, the Asia-Latin America submarine telecommunications cable initiative and the implementation of 5G.

In addition, InvestChile launched the Foreign Investors Guide in Portuguese which contains a step-by-step guide on legal, regulatory and administrative matters as well as practical information on how to start operations in Chile.

The activities were led by the director of InvestChile, Cristián Rodríguez Chiffelle, and the Chilean ambassor to Brazil, Fernando Schmidt, and the invitations were issued by the main local trade federations: Firjan, Fiemg and Fecomercio SP. Participating companies included technology company Ascenty – which recently announced the construction of a data center in Chile for investment of US$70 million – Emirates Airlines, Unidata and TecnoMetal, among others.

The InvestChile director stressed the high level of interest by Brazilian businesspeople to learn more about how to do business in Chile, their appreciation of the publication in Portuguese of the Foreign Investors Guide, “as well as having access to details of the public projects our government is offering.”

At the end of the tour, Rodríguez said that not only large Brazilian companies are exploring Chile, but mid-sized companies are also moving from a phase of commercial operations to studying setting up in Chile “which speaks well of the conditions our country offers.” “They especially emphasized that Chile is a country where doing business is easy, with a simple tax system, clear rules, and which offers favorable export conditions. We will work as an agency to transform this interest into specific projects,” said the InvestChile director.

Marcos Siqueira, Ascenty’s vice president sales, products and operations, drew attention to the good conditions that the company found when setting up in Chile and which led it to choose Chile to build its first data center outside Brazil. “Our clients, which are large multinationals, asked us to go to Chile owing to the favorable conditions it offers to develop their businesses,” he said.

Regarding his experience with InvestChile, Siqueira said it was essential to enter the Chilean market in the right way, “relying on the experience of a first-class agency.” “Chile is prepared to experience rapid economic and commercial growth as a state-of-the-art technology center, and the development of our first facility in the country will increase our ability to meet our customers’ demands for data centers and colocation solutions in Latin America,” he added.

With a stock of investment of US$10,038 million, Brazil is by far Chile’s largest Latin American investor. In one year, InvestChile’s portfolio grew from 14 projects worth US$124 million in 2017 to 25 initiatives worth US$367 million by the end of 2018, with a marked emphasis in technology and the food industry. This increase reflects the growing interest of Brazilian companies to implement projects in our country and motivated the agency to hold its roadshows, which finished yesterday in Sao Paulo.