The Agency’s director, Vicente Mira, traveled to Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom, joining President Bachelet’s state visit to Stockholm and taking part in Chile Day in London.

In the framework of President Michelle Bachelet’s state visit to Sweden and the Chile Day event in the United Kingdom, the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (APIE) carried out a successful tour of Europe that also included a packed agenda of activities in Denmark.

The tour focused on meetings with investors and activities to promote investment opportunities in Chile in the mining suppliers, energy, innovation and transport sectors.

In Copenhagen, representatives of APIE met with senior executives of Maersk Container International, a company that has important operations in the Valparaíso Region, as well as key officials at the Invest in Denmark investment promotion agency with whom they discussed potential areas of collaboration. In addition, they gave a presentation for mid-sized companies that are in the process of internationalization.

In Stockholm, APIE’s Director, Vicente Mira, formed part of the official government delegation that accompanied President Bachelet on her state visit there. The delegation also included the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Osvaldo Andrade; the President of the Senate, Ricardo Lagos Weber; the Ministers of Foreign Relations, Heraldo Muñoz; Transport and Telecommunications, Andrés Gómez-Lobo; Women’s Affairs, Claudia Pascual; and Mining, Aurora Williams, as well as the Director General of Economic Relations, Andrés Rebolledo.

During her visit, President Bachelet met with representatives of some of Sweden’s leading companies, including Ericsson, Volvo, Atlas Copco, Skanska, ABB and EF. Together with King Carl XVI Gustaf, she also headed the Chile-Sweden Business Forum, organized by APIE and Business Sweden, which took place in Stockholm’s Grand Hotel and was attended by over 200 people.

Speaking at the Forum, President Bachelet indicated that one of the Chilean economy’s challenges is to attract more overseas capital and pointed out that, to this end, it has established a new institutional framework that provides better guarantees as well as offering conditions such as its longstanding political and economic stability which make it one of Latin America’s leading investment destinations as well as serving as a platform from which to do business around the region.

She also emphasized that “this visit has served as an opportunity to strengthen our collaboration and invite Swedish companies to invest in Chile.” She noted that around 125 Swedish companies are already represented there, thanks to the country’s institutional stability, responsible economic management and broad network of free trade agreements.

Chile Day

In London, APIE participated in the LatinFinance Forum as well as in Chile Day, presenting specific investment opportunities. Together with the Ministers of Finance and Public Works, it also participated in meetings with investors from the infrastructure sector. In addition, Vicente Mira joined President Bachelet in meetings with the UK’s leading mining companies and the inauguration of the new premises of the London Metal Exchange (LME).

Speaking at Canning House, an organization that promotes relations between the UK, Latin America, Spain and Portugal, President Bachelet underlined the importance of the 25 Free Trade Agreements that Chile has signed with a total of 64 countries that represent 60% of global GDP. “Chile has a vocation to serve as a bridge between the Pacific and the Atlantic and between different economies, cultures and political traditions,” she said.

She also referred to Chile’s relations with Europe and the importance of its Association Agreement with the European Union for the country’s development. “We are very interested in modernizing this Agreement and its pillars: political, trade and cooperation for development. We hope to count on the support of the United Kingdom to start the negotiations at the end of the year,” she added.

Vicente Mira noted that the tour “has been an excellent opportunity to confirm the interest that European companies have in Chile and also to talk about our new investment promotion strategy and the services the Agency will offer, which have met with a very positive response.”

Since 2003, Chile has had an Association Agreement with the European Union, its third largest trading partner after China and the United States. The EU is also Chile’s largest source of foreign direct investment, accounting for over 30% of the inflow between 2009 and 2014, while the United Kingdom is its sixth largest source. Chile is, moreover, the UK’s second largest export market in South America.