• The event, which took place over three days in Chile, was attended by representatives of some 100 companies from 21 countries, with projects worth more than US$7,200 million.

Companies from the United States, Canada, China, Brazil, the Arab Emirates, Korea and another 15 economies participated in the Fifth International Investment Forum Chile 2019, organized by InvestChile, the government’s foreign investment promotion agency. The event culminated with a massive matchmaking round. It included over 200 meetings in which overseas companies, with projects valued at US$7,200 million in sectors such as infrastructure, the food industry, global services and technology, mining and venture capital, talked with Chilean companies, suppliers and institutions.

The Forum, which included a conference chaired by the President of the Republic, Sebastián Piñera, and attended by more than 450 people, also included five workshops about opportunities in specific sectors. The Minister of Public Works, Juan Andrés Fontaine, presented the country’s portfolio of concession projects to companies from countries such as China and Korea. Similarly, the Minister of Mining, Baldo Prokurica, talked with companies from countries that included Canada, Japan and Australia about opportunities for exploration in the portfolio of ENAMI while the Minister of Agriculture, Antonio Walker, spoke with companies from the United States, Japan and France about opportunities in his area. Business leaders and authorities also participated in the venture capital and global services workshops, along with companies such as Huawei, Amazon Web Services, IBM and Wayra and the Endeavor organization.

Chile, regional leader

Minister Walker highlighted the Forum’s importance and noted that “as a country, we have exported US$24,000 million in agribusiness products and US$18,000 million in agricultural products. We have a country with tremendous comparative advantages and, with the help of InvestChile, I am sure we can continue to develop the sector.”

Abby Daniell, public sector business development manager for Latin America at Amazon Web Services, indicated that “Chile is a regional and global leader. It has a solid democracy, one of which you should be proud; administrations change and conditions stay the same. The labor force is well prepared. This week we have seen many potential investors from Japan, Europe, all the world.”

Cristián Rodríguez, director of InvestChile, emphasized that “this is a good way to start a year in which our agency will be focused on attracting more, and also better, foreign investment. In 2018, Chile recovered its capacity to attract investment, with a figure that – according to the Central Bank – exceeded US$12,000 million, practically double the amount in 2017. Events like these are important for starting conversations about new business and for ministries to get involved in the task of promoting Chile as a destination for foreign investment, which is the job of us all.”