During the third Chile-Turkey business meeting, Vicente Mira highlighted Chile’s advantages as a destination for foreign direct investment and spoke about the opportunities Chile offers for overseas companies.

The director of the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (APIE), Vicente Mira, was one of the speakers at the third Chile-Turkey business meeting, organized by Chile’s Manufacturers’ Association (SOFOFA) during the visit to Chile of Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan. The event was inaugurated by President Michelle Bachelet and attended by some one hundred Turkish businesspeople who were able to learn about the business opportunities Chile offers.

Mira explained the role of the new Foreign Investment Promotion Agency, emphasizing the government’s efforts to create “the conditions to attract more and better investment to Chile.”

The Minister of Economy, Economic Development and Tourism, Luis Felipe Céspedes, assured the audience that Chile has a solid and competitive economy with important investments in infrastructure. “Economic policies like the Productivity, Innovation and Growth Agenda or the Energy Agenda are clear signs of the efforts the government is making to achieve these important goals,” he pointed out.

He also noted that 2016 is the Year of Productivity when the aim will be to strengthen a pillar of the Chile’s strategy for economic growth. In line with this, Minister Céspedes indicated that there are areas and sectors of the Chilean economy with great potential growth and in which it is important to attract greater foreign investment.

Tourism is one concrete example, he said. “Our country has high growth potential in this sector; the number of overseas tourists visiting our country has shown an important increase in recent years,” he noted. Another important area is food production, he added.

Trade relations

During President Tayyip Erdogan’s visit, the director general of the Foreign Ministry’s General Directorate of International Economic Relations (DIRECON), Andrés Rebolledo, presented a positive evaluation of the five years since the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Chile and Turkey came into force.

“Our trade agreement with Turkey has had a very positive effect for both countries; indeed, over the past five years, Chile’s non-copper exports to this country have grown by 16% while our imports from Turkey, excluding oil, have risen by 12%,” reported  Rebolledo.

He noted that a number of Chilean food products, including walnuts, rice and seafood, as well as forestry products have benefited particularly from tariff reductions under the FTA.

In 2015, trade between Chile and Turkey reached US$559 million, comprising Chilean exports to Turkey for US$315 million and imports from Turkey for US$244 million.

Source: APIE/Ministry of Economy/Direcon