• The Agency’s director, Cristián Rodríguez, emphasized the vital role that promoting reinvestment and retaining overseas companies with investments in Chile will play in the economy’s reactivation after the crisis.  

InvestChile, the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency, published its 2019 Public Account this morning. The results are positive: a portfolio of 413 investment projects at different stages of development, representing a total investment of US$17,799 million and the potential to create 15,191 jobs.

The director of InvestChile, Cristián Rodríguez, drew attention to the results, pointing out that they are in the right direction for the Agency to achieve its target of increasing the number of projects in the portfolio that are at the materialization stage by 50% in 2019-2021.

“To date, we have made significant progress with respect to the goals we have set ourselves for the three-year period, achieving 58% progress on the number of projects in our portfolio and, even more importantly, 54% progress in the case of the projects that we undertook would be materializing their investment,” said Rodríguez.

Out of the total portfolio, materialized investment – companies that are already establishing operations in the country – reached US$5,265 million, equivalent to a 200% annual increase.  

“After three years of declines, the trend changed in 2018 and there was a further strong increase in 2019 and the early months of 2020. In challenging times for foreign investment, now with the Covid-19 pandemic, InvestChile will continue working so interest in investing in Chile maintains its growth,” said the director of InvestChile.

Referring to the challenges for this year, he stressed that 2020 will be a quite challenging year as regards the attraction of foreign investment, given the global crisis caused by Covid-19. “2020 will be a year for reducing uncertainty and retaining existing investments. That is why we are working to develop new specialized post-investment services and differentiated assistance for investors already established in the country, among others,” said Rodríguez.

Aftercare services, which comprise activities to support, accompany and build long-term relationships with overseas companies established in Chile, are a key part of the work of InvestChile: 48% of the total value of the investments in the Agency’s 2019 portfolio and 51% of the jobs they would create corresponded to companies that already had operations in Chile.

“Investment will be fundamental for the recovery of the economy once the Covid-19 health emergency has been overcome and, at InvestChile, we will be reinforcing our work to foster reinvestment by overseas companies already in Chile and promote the country abroad as the situation normalizes,” indicated Rodríguez.