• The meeting, chaired by Economy Minister Nicolás Grau, featured a review of InvestChile’s results and strategic plans.

This afternoon’s meeting of the Ministerial Committee for the Promotion and Encouragement of Foreign Investment, led by Economy Minister Nicolás Grau, reviewed progress and new developments by Chile’s foreign investment promotion agency, InvestChile.

Chile’s Public Works Minister Jessica López, International Economic Relations Undersecretary Claudia Sanhueza, Mining Undersecretary Suina Chahuán and Agriculture Undersecretary Ignacia Fernández attended the meeting. The Head of the Energy Ministry’s International Relations Office, María Helena Lee, attended on behalf of the Energy Ministry, and the Coordinator of Finance and International Affairs, Carola Moreno, represented the Finance Ministry.

InvestChile Director Karla Flores offered remarks on the global and local foreign investment situation and the agency’s results and strategic plans.

InvestChile’s new initiatives include formalizing efforts to promote the public project portfolio internationally, expanding the agency’s capacity to promote public tendering processes abroad. The aim is to diversify the origin of the participating countries and introduce more competition. The agency is also working on the second phase of its regional plan, expanding efforts with governments outside Santiago to consolidate a regional FDI attraction network.

“The Ministerial Committee on Foreign Investment is important for coordinating joint efforts between InvestChile and the different ministries and keeping the ministries informed of developments in the country’s foreign direct investment attraction strategy. Historically, foreign companies have contributed significantly to our economy. InvestChile’s collaboration with different public entities enables the continued promotion of foreign investment so that the benefits of FDI reach every region of the country,” said Minister Grau.

Ms. Flores added, “The InvestChile team works daily to encourage foreign companies to choose Chile for their investments, whether that means setting up or expanding operations in any of the country’s various regions. There are also public tendering processes, which we promote domestically and abroad and support through our five investment commissioners posted around the world.”

Notably, the agency closed the first half of the year with 24% growth in its portfolio, which reached US$34.5 billion and 405 projects at different stages of development.