• The agenda included stops in Genoa, Rome, Paris and Madrid. The agency’s director, Karla Flores, also attended a WAIPA event held in Brazil.

InvestChile Director Karla Flores led a new investment promotion tour in Europe that included four stops—in Rome, Genoa, Paris and Madrid—to meet with public and private sector representatives to discuss the economic scenario and investment opportunities in Chile.

The activities kicked off in Rome, where Flores was accompanied by Chilean Ambassador Ennio Vivaldi and InvestChile’s investment attaché in Italy, Francisca Müller. There, the Director spoke to more than 30 representatives of local firms and associations at the meeting, “Chile: Perspectives and investment opportunities.”

Flores also held meetings with representatives of the Italian development bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), the General Confederation of Italian Industry (Confindustria), and Italy’s trade agency, ITA. Director Flores also attended bilateral meetings, mainly with companies in the energy and infrastructure sectors.

In Genoa, Flores was a featured speaker at a well-attended meeting on “Green energy in Chile: An opportunity for Italian companies focused on green hydrogen.” Notably, Italy is one Chile’s leading foreign investors, accounting for more than US$16.7 billion in stock in 2023.

In Paris, the InvestChile director participated in the OECD-sponsored event “Sustainable Investment Days” as moderator of a panel on “Monitoring and evaluation of sustainable investment,” focused on decarbonization and gender equality. She also attended meetings there with OECD representatives, including the head of the Investment Division, Ana Novik.

In Madrid, the last stop on the European roadshow, Flores attended a meeting with ICEX Spain to discuss international best practices in investment attraction, among other topics.

She also spoke at an event hosted by Fundación Chile España, with the organization’s president, Rafael Mateo, also in attendance. Ms. Flores addressed the economic outlook and investment opportunities in our country in front of more than 100 representatives from the Spanish private sector. Bilateral meetings were also held with companies in the energy, infrastructure, banking, industrial, communications and security sectors.

Overall, Flores called the tour a success, highlighting the opportunity to interact directly with companies already present in Chile and to convey our country’s benefits to new companies. “Private and public sector representatives from Italy, France and Spain heard our analysis of the current state of the Chilean economy and also learned about investment opportunities focused on green energy, lithium and digital infrastructure,” she commented.

Meeting with WAIPA in Brazil

Prior to her European tour, Director Flores attended a meeting of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) co-organized by ApexBrasil, in São Paulo. At the meeting, representatives of these agencies exchanged ideas for collaboration on sustainability and infrastructure to foster regional integration.

“We spoke about the challenges faced by investment promotion agencies in the current global economic scenario, analyzed sustainability criteria used in different countries and shared ideas that encourage participation and collaboration among our agencies,” Flores commented.