The public-private delegation led by former President Eduardo Frei met with companies that included Mitsubishi, Mitsui and JX Minerals.

Tokyo’s financial district, in the Marunouchi neighborhood between the city’s train station and the Imperial Palace, is a mixture of traditional and ultra-modern architecture. It is home to Japan’s leading banks and the headquarters of its principal economic groups.

This was the setting for the series of meetings which the public-private delegation, led by Chile’s Ambassador for Asia-Pacific, former President Eduardo Frei, held with the CEOs and directors of companies such as Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Mizuho Bank and JX Minerals, during a visit to Japan to mark the 120^th anniversary of its diplomatic relations with Chile.

The meetings were attended by the director of InvestChile, Carlos Álvarez, and the agency’s new investment attaché, Vicente Pinto, as well as the director general of Chile’s Directorate of International Economic Relations (DIRECON), Paulina Nazal; the director of ProChile, Alejandro Buvinic; Chile’s ambassador to Japan, Gustavo Ayares; and other members of the delegation.

“Japanese companies have been present in Chile for decades and are characterized by their high level of sophistication. With the opening of our first Investment Promotion Office in Asia, we want to work directly with them so they continue to invest and there is new investment in sectors where they are not yet present,” said the director of InvestChile, Carlos Álvarez.

He emphasized that the opportunities Chile offers for Japanese companies include the development of solar energy, information technologies, mining equipment, functional foods and special interest tourism.

“We want these companies which are in higher value-added sectors to come to Chile; that is the main reason we are choosing Japan,” added Álvarez, pointing out that the new office in Tokyo “will serve as a bridge between Japanese companies and the investment opportunities there are in Chile.”

Japan is the world’s third-largest economy and Chile’s principal source of investment from Asia, accounting for an inflow of US$5,717 million between 2009 and 2015, equivalent to some 4% of total FDI in Chile during that period. Over 60 Japanese companies currently have operations in Chile and some have been present there for decades.