Chilean president Sebastián Piñera promulgated on Wednesday the education review bill which besides increasing funding by a billion dollars reduces from 6% to 2% the interest rate on loans for students to finance their university fees.
The world leading lithium producer SQM has won a tender to develop a lithium concession in Chile, which produces around 40% of the metal, used widely in hybrid vehicles and computer and smart-phone batteries, the Mining Ministry said on Monday.
Chilean Under Secretary for Tourism Jacqueline Plass said that in the first eight months of the year the number of arriving international tourists increased 16%, while August became the arrivals record month since 1988.
The Chilean Army is scheduled to begin in October the clearance of anti-tank mines which are distributed on the sides of the route leading to the national Park of Torres del Paine from Puerto Natales and which were planted during the seventies at the height of a conflict with Argentina that almost ended in a full-fledged war.
A Carabinero was shot dead, scores of people were injured and 255 others arrested in violent protests marking the 39th anniversary of the military coup that toppled Chilean elected Socialist president Salvador Allende in 1973, reported the Ministry of Interior on Wednesday.
A Chilean court has confirmed that President Salvador Allende killed himself in 1973 as troops attacked the presidential palace to oust him. Official reports, accepted by his family, concluded that his death was suicide but his body was exhumed in 2011 to settle lingering doubts.
The Chilean central bank raised its forecast for economic growth this year to between 4.75% and 5.25% (from 4% to 5%), adding that it expects GDP to expand 4% to 5% in 2013.
Chile's Congress approved on Tuesday major changes in tax laws aimed to provide funds for an overhaul of the nation's protest-hit schools, handing unpopular President Sebastian Piñera a welcome victory a month from municipal elections.
International arrivals in Chile in the first half of the year showed a significant growth of 15% compared to the same period a year before, having totalled 1.850.048 tourists, according to the Chilean Tourism Barometer compiled by Fedetur, the Federation of Tourism companies from Chile.
Foreign minister Alfredo Moreno ratified Chilean support for Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands during a meeting with a delegation from Andean countries belonging to the “Solidarity Group with Malvinas”.