• CORFO, ZOFRI S.A., InvestChile and the Tarapacá Regional Government will implement a project to encourage overseas companies to invest in the Alto Hospicio municipal district.

The constitution of the board of directors of the “Program of Attraction of Investment by Value-Added Industries in the Tax-Free Business Park” marked the launch of this project designed to promote the arrival of overseas companies to the Alto Hospicio tax-free compound.

The initiative, being implemented jointly by the government’s Economic Development Agency (CORFO), ZOFRI S.A., InvestChile and the Tarapacá Regional Government, seeks to foster, develop and strengthen the region’s capacity for innovation and growth.

The Program’s board of directors is formed by the general manager of ZOFRI S.A., Rodolfo Prat Díaz, as chairman, with the regional director of CORFO, Raúl Fernández Rojas, as vice-chairman and, as directors, the head of InvestChile’s Investment Promotion Division, Ian Frederick Berndt, and the representative of the Regional Government, Patricio Meneses Leiva. The board’s mission is to lead compliance with the Program’s objectives and to oversee the project’s strategic, operational and implementation process.

The regional director of CORFO, Raúl Fernández, indicated that the aim will be to “enhance the Tarapacá Region’s competitive capabilities and, particularly, the tax-free system through the transfer of knowledge, technology and expertise in managing innovation and, at the same time, boost the development of entrepreneurship. To this end, our corporation will use the Integrated Promotion Initiatives (IFI) line of strategic impact in the Tarapacá Region.”

The general manager of ZOFRI S.A., Rodolfo Prat, pointed out that “the implementation of this initiative (…) seeks to put ZOFRI on the radar so that it can capture more and better business, which implies continuing to strengthen this platform as the principal reference in South America. The work we are doing with CORFO, InvestChile and the Regional Government is an example of cooperation and collaboration that we hope to intensify to the benefit of our tax-free zone.”

The head of InvestChile’s Investment Promotion Division explained that “we are a government agency that promotes Chile in the global market as a destination for foreign direct investment, serving as a bridge between the interests of overseas investors and the business opportunities the country offers, providing information and other assistance in line with the country’s economic development policies. In this case, we will be connecting the business park with global investors.”

This program is an instrument of CORFO’s investment division that consists in bringing different financing and support mechanisms together in a single strategic approach. Through an application process, companies will be able to access ZOFRI’s preferential rates and a series of CORFO support instruments for the implementation of the investments as well as studies of systematization of business opportunities, investment attraction seminars and regional, national and international business meetings.

The initiative has its origin in August 2016 when CORFO signed a cooperation agreement with ZOFRI S.A. in order to create better conditions for innovation processes and the attraction of foreign investors for the development of new sustainable technologies in ZOFRI’s business park in Alto Hospicio.

Sources: El Longino de Iquique, Poder y Liderazgo, Tarapacá Online