The new strategy for attracting investment and the challenges triggered by the pandemic were discussed In a virtual meeting.

The Public-Private Council for Foreign Investment held its first meeting of the year this morning, which was chaired by InvestChile Managing Director Andrés Rodríguez Rowe.  The Council was created under Law 20,848, which established the framework for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Chile. Its objective is to guide the strategies and tasks of the agency in its efforts to attract greater investment flows into Chile.

The meeting opened with words of welcome from the Economy, Development and Tourism Minister, Lucas Palacios, who thanked the Council members for their participation, and highlighted the importance of the Council’s meeting in the country’s current context. He stated, “it is very important that we continue cultivating spaces for dialogue and collaboration between the public and private sectors. Only through greater dialogue and joint working will we be able to emerge stronger from our social, economic and political challenges.”

Along with introducing himself to the new members of the Council, he gave a presentation on the current state of foreign investment in Chile together with future projections. Additionally, he outlined the most important aspects of the new strategy for promoting and developing FDI, which the agency has worked on in conjunction with the Economy Ministry and other industry-specific ministries. Andrés Rodríguez added that, “globally, foreign investment fell by 35% during 2020, a figure that reached 45% in Latin America. While we hope that investment flows will recover this year, we are facing a challenging and very competitive scenario.” The Director especially highlighted the work of InvestChile, and its aggressive strategy for promoting investments that “are playing and will continue to play a key role in Chile’s economic recovery,” he said.

The following are the members of the InvestChile Public-Private Advisory Council.

From the public sector:

Carolina Torrealba – Science and Technology Undersecretary, Science and Technology Ministry

María Paz Troncoso – Regional and Administrative Development Undersecretary, Regional and Administrative Development Undersecretariat

Pablo Terrazas – Executive Vice-President of the Chilean Economic Development Agency (CORFO)

Jorge Tapia – Executive Secretary of the Sustainable Project Management Office (GPS), Economy Ministry

Rodrigo Krell – Executive Secretary of the National Productivity Commission

From the private sector:

Alejandra Mustakis – Former President of the Association of Chilean Entrepreneurs (ASECH)

Andrea Butelmann – Partner at Butelmann Consultores

Andrés Rebolledo – Dean of the Faculty of Administration, Finance and Business at Universidad SEK, former Energy Minister

Charles Kimber – Chair of the International Committee of the Federation of Chilean Industry (SOFOFA)

Edgardo Frías – Country Director Chile & Peru, Google Chile

Félix de Vicente – President Kitchen Center and former Economy Minister

Guillermo Tagle – President of Credicorp Capital Chile

Iván Arriagada Herrera – CEO Antofagasta PLC

Nicolás Majluf – Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Sandra Guazzotti – Senior Vice President Multi Country Region, Oracle Latin America

Sergio Rademacher – Country General Manager and Chief Digital Transformation Officer at Microsoft Chile

Zhang Yixin – General Manager of China International Water & Electric Corp., China Three Gorges Chilean Agency

The Council is expected to continue its work virtually and to meet at least once more in the coming months.