Taking advantage of the opening of InvestChile’s European office in Frankfurt, Economy Minister  Jorge Rodríguez and InvestChile director, Carlos Álvarez, held a series of meetings with companies seeking opportunities in Chile.

At the end of last week, while in Europe for the opening of InvestChile’s first office there, Economy Minister Jorge Rodríguez and the director of InvestChile, Carlos Álvarez, met with a number of European companies, finding that they take a positive view of the outlook for foreign investment in Chile.   

Minister Rodríguez reported that “the investors whom we are going to begin to make efforts to attract here in Europe may not be large companies – this is not what we are interested in – but we are very interested in them having the capacity to take greater advantage of products in the sectors from which we are exporting.”

Carlos Álvarez indicated that “the reception from European companies has been really good. We have been able to learn about how they currently view Chile, which is extremely positive, and see ways in which InvestChile can help them to continue to grow in our country. We are talking about sophisticated companies with an important level of technological investment. Our new European office in Frankfurt will play a central role in this task.” 

While in Germany, both authorities met with Christoph Boettger, a director of the Beneo functional foods and ingredients company with whom they discussed the operations of Beneo-Orafti in Chile and the possibilities that expansion of its installations would offer. In addition, they were able to talk with Olivier Rigaud, CEO of France’s Naturex, a company specializing in the production of health foods, which already has operations in Chile.

Together with Fernando Ortiz, InvestChile’s investment attaché in Europe, Álvarez also met with representatives of Santander and Deutsche Bank, with whom he agreed not only to tighten ties and share information to collaborate in investors’ “landing” in Chile but also to study the option of joint activities.

Chile, “successful and stable”

On Friday, Álvarez and Minister Rodríguez traveled to Munich where they visited the headquarters of Siemens and held a working meeting with the multinational’s chief of staff, Mariel von Schumann. Siemens has had operations in Chile for over 100 years and, according to Von Schumann, it “has been a successful and stable country and that is something our company values in the long term. We see a close tie between Chile and Siemens.”

Álvarez and Ortiz also traveled to Augsburg where they visited the plant of the Kuka advanced robotics company, meeting with Erich Lochmann, sales channel director for Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East with whom they discussed the possibilities that vanguard technology offers for different Chilean industries.