The event highlighted the key role that technology will play, with Microsoft, Google and Oracle implementing projects worth US$4,500 million during the next five years.

President Sebastián Piñera; former President Ricardo Lagos; the Minister of Economy, Economic Development and Tourism, Lucas Palacios; the Minister of Transport and Telecommunications, Gloria Hutt; the Minister of Public Works, Alfredo Moreno; the Minister of Energy, Juan Carlos Jobet; the Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, Andrés Couve; and the director of InvestChile, Andrés Rodríguez, were among the prominent panelists who participated in the two-day seminar “Choose Chile, A partner for a sustainable future”.

Over 2,000 people registered for the event to promote foreign investment in Chile. It was transmitted on January 12 and 13, 2021, and was seen by more than 800,000 people. Infrastructure, clean energy, sustainable investment and new technologies were the central themes of the meeting, organized by the Economy Ministry and InvestChile.

The seminar was opened by President Sebastián Piñera, who drew attention to the importance that clean and renewable energies will have for the country’s development in the next decade. Investment in the sector is already forecast to reach  US$28,000 million, “which will allow us not only to increase our installed electricity capacity, but also to achieve the goal that, by 2030, clean and renewable energies account for 70% of our matrix,” he said.

President Piñera also noted that the agenda “seeks to meet our growth expectations and advance along the path of clean and renewable energies that enables us to become a carbon neutral country”. He added that “in 2020, we announced the national plan of infrastructure for mobility, which seeks to prepare our society for the challenges of the next 30 years; it envisages investment of close to US$50,000 million and includes highways, roads, ports, airports and railway infrastructure.”

The seminar sought to boost Chile’s position as a pole of development and investment in various areas with a view to the new decade that is just beginning and to which the world’s main technology companies are already looking ahead. Economy Minister Lucas Palacios stressed that “today, we are seeing another extraordinarily important type of investment in Chile, which is going to change the economy of the future: the arrival of investment in technology and digital industries. Companies as important as Microsoft, Google and Oracle are already coming to Chile. During the next five years, we will receive investments for over US$4,500 million by world-class technology companies,” he said.

Similarly, the director of InvestChile, Andrés Rodríguez, indicated that “foreign investment is playing and will play a key role in the recovery of our economy in the context of the pandemic, especially in a task as urgent as job creation. Generating the conditions and opportunities to attract it is a task for both the public and private worlds and, as an agency, we are working to articulate this effort.”

Former President Ricardo Lagos participated in this important platform to attract foreign investment to Chile and highlighted the certainties the country provides. “We are going to reactivate the economy, but responsibly, and we are in a position to do so and continue to be a country that has a known risk for all,” he said. He noted how Chile has changed course towards a green economy and its important work on climate change and the reduction of greenhouse gases, assuring that “we will be in the very first place in Latin America”.

A recording of the event is available on https://eligechile.economia.cl/ and includes the participation of important panelists such as Bernardo Larraín, president of Chile’s Manufacturers’ Association (SOFOFA); Guillermo Tagle, president of Credicorp Capital; Raphael Bergoeing, president of the National Productivity Commission; María José Montero, a partner at FIS Impact Investing, Ameris Capital; Sergio Rademacher, general manager of Microsoft Chile; Luis Manuel Vives, general manager of Cervecería AB InBev Chile; María Paz Cerda, vice-president of legal affairs at AES Gener; Axel Leveque, general manager of Engie Energía Chile; Joaquín Villarino, president of Chile’s Mining Council; Karla Zapata, general manager of Enel X Chile; María Teresa González, general manager of Statkraft; Axel Christensen, chief investment strategist for Latin America at BlackRock; Carlos Cruz, general manager of the CPI; Emilio Andrade, director of ARDIAN; Luz Granier, president of the Infrastructure Fund, and Nicolás Balmaceda, a partner at Barros & Errázuriz.