• The two agencies signed the agreement in China, with a view to cooperating on investment issues.

In a bid to facilitate investment in Chile by Chinese companies, the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency, InvestChile, has signed an agreement with Invest Shanghai, the institution responsible for promoting both investment and the export of capital from the Chinese city.

The agreement, which involves the permanent exchange of relevant information and the attention of Chinese companies who arrive in Chile through Invest Shanghai as well as the potential implementation of joint activities in both countries, was signed by the president of Invest Shanghai, Sun Xinhua, and the director of InvestChile, Cristián Rodríguez.

Sun Xinhua indicated that, “I am sure this Memorandum of Understanding will reinforce mutually beneficial cooperation between InvestChile and Invest Shanghai in promoting investment between the two countries.”

Similarly, Cristián Rodríguez said that the agreement “is excellent news because Shanghai is at the center of our future plans and the agency’s support will be of great help in the steps we are taking to promote our country among Chinese investors.” He also highlighted InvestChile’s recent launch of its Investor’s Guide in Mandarin. “It is an important step to have for the first time a document like this one, which is extremely concrete and will serve as a ‘navigation chart’ to help Chinese investors learn about the practical details of establishing operations in Chile,” he pointed out.

The Guide’s value was also underlined by Sun Xinhua. “It will help overcome the language barriers that Chinese companies encounter when they want to establish their businesses in Chile and Latin America,” he said.

Meetings and agreements

On Monday, Rodríguez also met with the director general of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s Investment Promotion Agency (CIPA), Liu Dianxu, and his team, with a view to expanding existing cooperation between the two agencies and implementing joint activities.

Despite being Chile’s principal trading partner, with annual bilateral trade reaching US$34,596 million, China, including Hong Kong, accounted for a stock of foreign investment in Chile that, in 2016, totaled only US$922 million, or 4.3% of foreign investment from Asia, according to the Central Bank of Chile.

Recent operations by Chinese companies in Chile, however, suggest that this trend is changing. In addition, InvestChile is currently working with 74 Chinese companies and 18 specific projects worth over US$1,800 million in areas such as energy, mining and infrastructure.

CIPA and InvestChile delegations.