• More than 100 representatives from foreign companies attended the talk with Environmental Assessment Service Director Valentina Durán and InvestChile Director Karla Flores.

The “Environmental impact assessment in Chile: Creating opportunities and certainties for investment projects” meeting took place in the ballrooms at Pereira Palace yesterday. Part of the InvestChileTalks series organized by the country’s foreign investment promotion agency, the event featured presentations by Environmental Assessment Service Director Valentina Durán and InvestChile Director Karla Flores.

Addressing some 100 representatives from foreign companies, the EAS director highlighted the agency’s positive international evaluations and remarked on the need for more environmentally robust projects. Durán called on the companies to proactively prevent the delays caused by correcting reports filed with the agency.

EAS Director Valentina Durán remarked, “Chile’s robust environmental impact assessment system is internationally recognized as an asset. Our mission is to protect that asset by modernizing it and adding measures to the EAS that make it increasingly predictable. The system aims to provide technical and legal certainty for investors without compromising on the environmental protections that Chile requires. We are working hard to standardize criteria, prepare guidelines and offer 100% free online training to help domestic and foreign companies use the system to submit more and better proposals,” she said.

Likewise, she valued the opportunity to talk with the companies and teach them more about the EAS’s work as well as the resources and materials the service makes available to help them improve their proposals.

Working together

Karla Flores presented an overview of investment in Chile and the world, focusing on Chile’s macroeconomic advances and high foreign investment figures. She highlighted InvestChile’s coordinating role, especially outside the Santiago Metropolitan Area. “As an agency, we are willing to create working groups involving regional governments, sector authorities and the private sector so we can identify the ‘bottlenecks’ affecting companies. We can seek solutions to benefit those directly involved as well as other companies in the region, which would get their projects operating faster and contribute to the local economy,” she said. The InvestChile Director reiterated the agency’s willingness to work with companies to accelerate the setting up of operations in Chile.

Notably, as of June of this year, InvestChile is providing support to more than 400 projects by foreign companies valued at US$34.5 billion.