• Chile’s Minister of Economy will hold a series of meetings organized by the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency as part of the presidential tour of Europe.

Chilean President, Gabriel Boric, will travel to Europe on Monday with an itinerary that will include visits to Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and France. The trip will also involve a series of investment promotion activities organized by InvestChile and the Chilean embassies in each country, which will be led by Minister of Economy, Development, and Tourism, Nicolás Grau.

In Berlin, the President and leading local companies will participate in the Chile-Germany Economic Forum: Strategic Partners for Global Challenges, organized together with Lateinamerikainitiative, in which Rosario Navarro, President of the Federation of Chilean Industry (SOFOFA) will also take part.

Following this event, two sectoral roundtables will be held in parallel: in one, Minister Grau, together with the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action of Germany, Franziska Brantner, the Director of InvestChile, Karla Flores, and the President of Codelco, Máximo Pacheco, will speak with more than 30 representatives of companies and industry associations that are interested in lithium industry opportunities, with a focus on added value and the recent announcements by Chile’s National Mining Company (ENAMI) and economic development agency CORFO.

In the other roundtable, Minister of Energy, Diego Pardow, and Executive Vice President of CORFO, José Miguel Benavente, will discuss the opportunities around green hydrogen and the new roadmap presented by the ministry. Subsequently, Minister Nicolás Grau will hold bilateral meetings with companies from the industrial, chemical, and mining sectors.

In Munich, the minister and InvestChile’s director will participate in the Innovation Summit Chile Baviera, organized by export promotion agency ProChile, and will hold meetings with Bavarian companies in sectors such as clean energy and green hydrogen, before visiting BMW Group’s offices.

Sweden and France

In Stockholm, in addition to the official agenda which includes activities with leading Swedish authorities, they will hold meetings with companies in the critical minerals and green hydrogen sectors, and participate in a dialogue with the local business association. In Paris, Minister Grau will meet with companies from the automotive, mining, and green hydrogen industries, and a technology-focused investment fund.

«To accelerate growth and investment, it is fundamental as a government that we visit the markets that are interested in Chile, not only to promote business opportunities, but also to update them on our strategy for key industries such as lithium and green hydrogen. There are already 19 companies from Germany and France interested in lithium, so this tour is essential to find ideal partners quickly, take advantage of the commercial opportunity associated with this mineral, and achieve our production targets. These companies are interesting not just because of the investment involved, but also their level of technological development, which guarantees extraction and processing with high environmental standards, which is essential for the government,» the minister said.

Meanwhile, InvestChile Director, Karla Flores, highlighted that «it is extremely important to maintain an open dialogue with the head offices of European companies. On an aggregate level, the European Union is the largest investor in Chile, with a foreign direct investment stock of US$67 billion, which accounts for 25% of the investment that has entered the country.»

«Beyond the figures, the sophistication of their industries, as well as the values that we share, create a clear match between the opportunities that we offer in key sectors for decarbonization, the expansion needs of European companies, and the commitment to environmental care and community development. We’re talking about companies that can help us to make strides in terms of quality in a short period of time in areas where we have advantages, but need to accelerate our progress,» she concluded.