Essential information
President Gabriel Boric led the 2025 Punta Arenas International Investment Forum
- The President kicked off the event organized by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Magallanes Regional Government, the Chilean Finance Ministry and InvestChile.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) chose Punta Arenas as the location for the Punta Arenas 2025 International Investment Forum. This event, held as part of the IDB Annual Governors’ Meetings, was attended by more than 200 participants, including government authorities, officials from international organizations, business executives, and industry representatives.
The inaugural seminar, titled “Green Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean: Solutions with Global Impact,” was led by the President of the Republic, Gabriel Boric.
The forum aims to promote the attractiveness of Latin America and the Caribbean as investment destinations in the context of the global energy transformation.
It also seeks to create instances to encourage public-private collaboration on investment projects that contribute to meeting global decarbonization goals and increase the visibility and prominence of areas outside Santiago for green investment.
In his speech, the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, emphasized the importance of the energy transition and strengthening public-private collaboration to move forward and address the climate crisis.
«We are launching CORFO’s Green Hydrogen Facility for those who want to invest in green hydrogen projects in Chile. The initiative signals a strong commitment from the State in conjunction with multilateral associations like the IDB. It extends beyond this administration to foster the industry’s medium and long-term development,» President Boric remarked.
Also in attendance were Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) President Ilan Goldfajn, Governor of the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region Jorge Flies, Chilean Finance Minister Mario Marcel, InvestChile Director Karla Flores, IDB Invest CEO James Scriven, Public Works Minister Jessica López and Energy Minister Diego Pardow.
Public-private dialogue
The forum featured panel discussions and two workshops on boosting green investment in the region. Representatives from 80 companies in 15 countries attended.
InvestChile Director Karla Flores moderated the “Investments with purpose: Solving global challenges” panel.
Participants included OECD Head of Investment Ana Novik, IDB Representative in Chile Florencia Attademo-Hirt, AES Andes CEO Javier Dib, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) Director LatAm Max Correa and Antarctica 21 President Jaime Vásquez.
After listening to the panel, President Boric’s impromptu intervention in the debate addressed the administration’s efforts to accelerate investment, both in terms of permits and incentives.
He emphasized the need to shift institutional culture toward a more collaborative public-private vision and called on companies to think about how investments reach ordinary people.
President Boric commented that each project generates movement «beyond the investment, and the emerging ecosystem is tremendously positive. This is important for companies to put on the table because it allows long-term social sustainability of the projects.»
Director Flores noted that «states, multilateral organizations and the private sector must work together, each in their own role, to promote different initiatives and measures so that the investments needed to meet our climate change commitments can drive these changes and ensure the benefits of these investments reach the people and the territories where they occur.»
Financial Market Commission Chairwoman Solange Berstein moderated the forum’s second panel, entitled «Funding Projects for a Zero Emissions Future,» featuring HIF Global VP of Finance María Ignacia Varela, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) Corporate Solutions Group VP of Offtake Advisory Dong Hyun Ryu, BNP Paribas Managing Director of Official Institutions-Americas Sabina Veksler, ACN Capital Chairman Antonio Castilla and IDB Managing Director of Infrastructure and Energy Elizabeth Robberechts.
Rewatch the International Investment Forum Punta Arenas 2025.
Sector workshops
In the afternoon, InvestChile Director Karla Flores participated in the “Decarbonization and local development” workshop moderated by H2 Chile Executive Director Marcos Kulka and led by Chilean Energy Minister Diego Pardow, Environment Undersecretary Maximiliano Proaño, Magallanes Region Governor Jorge Flies, SIEMENS Energy VP South America Fernando Monteverde, H2V Magallanes President Mario Marchese and IDB Energy Specialist and Focal Point for Hydrogen Christiaan Gischler.
The parallel workshop, “Designing Public-Private Partnerships for Green Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean,” moderated by IDB Manager a.i., Productivity, Trade and Innovation (PTI) Sector Fabrizio Opertti, featured Chilean Public Works Minister Jessica López, CORFO Executive Vice President José Miguel Benavente, Codelco Chairman of the Board Máximo Pacheco, Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) Director Latin America Ramón Fiestas and IDB Lab Head of Strategy Marcelo Cabrol.
They discussed investment models that facilitate public-private collaboration and how public-private partnerships (PPPs) have proven to be a key tool in Latin America and the Caribbean for funding and implementing large-scale green projects, from renewable energy to resilient infrastructure.
E-fuel from Magallanes
On Tuesday, more than 60 company representatives and authorities participating in the forum visited the world’s first operational e-fuel plant, HIF Chile’s Haru Oni, where HIF Magallanes General Manager Juan Eduardo Gallardo, HIF Energy General Manager Rodrigo Delmastro, HIF Global VP of Finance María Ignacia Varela and Plant Manager Marcelo Daller welcomed them.
Haru Oni uses wind energy and electrolysis to generate green hydrogen.
The plant captures CO₂ from a biogenic source, combines it with hydrogen through synthesis and produces e-fuels like synthetic green gasoline (e-Gasoline) and synthetic green liquefied gas (e-LG).
These fuels will decarbonize existing infrastructure by continuously reusing and recycling CO₂.
HIF Global is the world’s leading e-fuels company, developing projects in different parts of the world to produce fuels from renewable energy, green hydrogen and recycled CO₂.
