In activities in Beijing and Shanghai, the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency presented a new publication to facilitate Chinese companies’ investment in Chile.
In order to make it easier for Chinese companies to invest in Chile, the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency, InvestChile, presented its first Investor’s Guide in Mandarin. Published in both print format and online and launched in Beijing and Shanghai during ChileWeek, the Guide seeks to serve as a “navigation chart” for companies considering Chile as a potential destination for investment.
“At InvestChile, we understand that cultural differences, mainly in terms of language, can be narrowed in these times of greater connectivity and globalized business. In this context, our new Investor’s Guide fills a gap that was evident in the case of Chinese companies: the lack of official material in their own language,” said Cristián Rodríguez Chiffelle, the recently appointed director of InvestChile, who presented the first copy of the publication to China’s Vice-Minister of Commerce, Wang Shouwen. “In the new guide, you can find all the basic information for setting up your company step by step, from the tax structure to environmental permits and labor laws. In this way, as an agency, we are helping to narrow the gap between the two countries’ business culture in a context of Chinese companies’ growing interest in our country,” he added.
With nine chapters that include legal and commercial matters, the Investor’s Guide in Mandarin is available on www.investchile.gob.cl/china and was presented during a series of activities organized by InvestChile as part of ChileWeek China, which also included the signing of investment promotion agreements with Invest Shanghai and the China Investment Promotion Agency (CIPA) as well as meetings with local media and companies and workshops about sectors such as venture capital (led by Foreign Minister Roberto Ampuero), the food industry (led by Minister of Agriculture Antonio Walker) and infrastructure (led by Minister of Public Works Juan Andrés Fontaine).
More Chinese projects
Despite being Chile’s principal trading partner, with annual bilateral trade reaching US$34,596 million, China, including Hong Kong, accounted for a stock of foreign investment in Chile that, in 2016, totaled only US$922 million, or 4.3% of foreign investment from Asia, according to the Central Bank of Chile.
Recent operations by Chinese companies in Chile, however, suggest that this trend is changing. In addition, InvestChile is currently working with 74 Chinese companies and 18 specific projects worth over US$1,800 million in areas such as energy, mining and infrastructure.
Cristián Rodríguez indicated that “ChileWeek is the prime opportunity to talk with Chinese companies about the development of their projects. If companies are thinking of expanding in Latin America, we want them to see Chile as a key partner in the region and InvestChile as a source of support for the development of their ideas.”
The presentation of the new Investor’s Guide was the culmination of an investment promotion roadshow in Europe and Asia implemented by InvestChile over the last three weeks, including eight investment workshops in five countries in which over 120 companies participated as well as more than 30 bilateral meetings. The tour included visits to Paris and Madrid (where activities were led by Economy Minister José Ramón Valente) and Stockholm and Tokyo where, together with Minister of Public Works Juan Andrés Fontaine, the government’s portfolio of infrastructure concessions projects was publicized.
New director of InvestChile
In the context of ChileWeek in Beijing, the lawyer Cristián Rodríguez took up his new position as director of the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency, InvestChile.
Rodríguez, who was selected through the Civil Service Board system and whose appointment was confirmed by President Sebastián Piñera, studied law at the University of Concepción and holds a Master of Laws degree from Harvard University and a Master in Public Administration degree from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Before his appointment at InvestChile, he served as Head of Trade and Sustainable Investment Policy at the World Economic Forum in Geneva. His experience includes his role at the Chilean Foreign Ministry’s General Directorate of International Economic Relations as chief negotiator on trade and the environment for agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Chile-Hong Kong FTA, and several investment treaties.
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