The event, organized by the country’s foreign investment promotion agency InvestChile, brought together in Chile 60 foreign companies with and without a presence in the country.

The fourth International Investment Forum Chile 2017 closed with the participation of representatives from 38 foreign companies not yet present in Chile, as well as 22 companies already established in the country in the sectors of Energy and Infrastructure, the Food Industry, Global Services and Mining.

The event, organized by InvestChile, had a closing session with 96 bilateral meetings, bringing together foreign investors with local counterparts including companies, associations and public bodies.

At the end of the event, the most important investment promotion activity held in Chile, the director of InvestChile, Carlos Álvarez, thanked foreign investors for their attendance and invited them to “continue working with the Agency to help them make their projects and new businesses happen soon,” while putting at their disposition the institution’s services for this purpose.

The inaugural seminar was presided over by Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet who presented “Visa Tech”, an initiative that will facilitate the arrival of qualified personnel in the technology area.

Sectorial round tables

Among the event’s main activities, which included a private reception at La Moneda Palace and an investment seminar with more than 360 participants led by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, were sectorial round tables attended by senior public and private sector representatives from Solar Energy; Mining Services, Technology and Equipment; the Food Industry; and Global Services. These workshops gave the various foreign company executives the chance to learn at first hand the opportunities that the country offers in these areas.

The solar energy round table was led by Andrés Romero, executive secretary of the National Energy Commission (CNE), and included the participation of Danilo Núñez, head of the Energy Ministry’s energy infrastructure division; Juan Rada, advisor on the Economic Development Agency’s (Corfo) strategic solar program; and Carlos Finat, executive director of ACERA.

The mining sector round table was chaired by Eduardo Bitrán, executive vice-president of Corfo and also attended by Mauro Valdés, president of the High Grade National Mining Program; Fernando Bracco, director of Minnovex; and Fernando Tobar, the country service organization manager of ABB University.

Meanwhile, the Food Industry round table was headed by Agriculture Under-Secretary, Claudio Ternicier; Francisco Rossier, director of innovation of Corfo’s food transformation program; Soledad Hidalgo, head of the Agrarian Innovation Foundation’s (FIA) strategic development unit/coordinator of innovation programs; and Juan José Albarran and Hans Konsens, directors of Naturex-ChileBotanics.

Finally, the Global Services round table was attended by Finance Ministry Under-Secretary Alejandro Micco, as well as Carlos Álvarez, director of InvestChile; Francisco Mardones, president of Corfo’s strategic transformation program for intelligent industries; Víctor Grimblatt, R&D group director and general manager of Synopsys: and Pablo Straub, CIS product development of Experian.

Representatives of companies from 15 countries took part in the three-day event, who evaluated as extremely positive the experience of learning at first hand the opportunities the country offers.