• The Economy Minister highlighted multi-sector promotion and support for the acquisition of companies as part of the work of InvestChile which, as of end-2017, had a portfolio of 199 projects, equivalent to US$7,700 million and over  10,000 jobs.

“We want to change the direction of the foreign investment attraction strategy implemented by InvestChile,” indicated the Minister of Economy, Economic Development and Tourism, José Ramón Valente, this morning during the presentation of the 2017 Public Report of InvestChile, the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency.

During the event, in which InvestChile’s acting director, Ian Frederick, also participated, Minister Valente announced a change in the strategy of the institution, responsible for attracting overseas capital to the country, and underlined its role in the government’s proposed “investment shock” under which investment in the country would grow at an annual rate of 6% to 7%.

“In our view, what has been achieved so far is attractive, but we believe in the idea of opening the doors of our country without discrimination. In this context, we want to modify InvestChile’s strategy so that it is multi-sector, instead of focused on specific sectors,” emphasized Minister Valente.

He added that “today InvestChile’s focus is on attracting direct or greenfield investment. We want to see Chilean investors going overseas and foreign investors coming here and, if that means foreign investors buying a company to grow it, rather than starting from zero, we see that as just as good.”

During his speech, Minister Valente also highlighted the role of InvestChile’s work together with the Economy Ministry’s recently created Office for Large Projects as well as the importance of coordination between the Agency and the network of ProChile as a means of improving and boosting the work of offices already established abroad. “The Economy Ministry’s Office for Large Projects will be a very important element for working together with the efforts of InvestChile,” he insisted.

InvestChile Public Report

In InvestChile’s Public Report, the Agency’s acting director, Ian Frederick, indicated that, in 2017, it attracted 199 projects by international companies to its portfolio, equivalent to US$7,700 million and over 10,000 jobs. Thirty-one of these projects have already been implemented, representing an investment of over US$900 million and creating 2,369 jobs.

“For each dollar invested in InvestChile, it contributed US$110 to the country in foreign investment,” said Frederick, who added that the aim is to increase that figure in 2018.

He also pointed out that, in just 18 months, “we have established a modern proactive agency, based on best international practices, to attract investment that creates value for the country,” noting that bodies like the OECD and the IDB had provided advice on the InvestChile’s design.

In 2017, InvestChile opened its first overseas investment promotion offices in San Francisco, Tokyo and Frankfurt. Over the course of the year, the Agency implemented 106 investment promotion activities in 19 countries as well as 25 activities to position Chile as a destination for foreign investment and recorded 1,366 appearances in online and traditional media, with a value of more than US$4 million, reaching over 471 million readers.

Its achievements also included the launch of a new digital platform, www.investchile.gob.cl, which was awarded a Government Standard of Excellence Prize in the Web Marketing Association’s WebAwards 2017.