MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Foreign investment booming in Chile

Foreign investment in Chile has grown US$3.4 billion over the last eight months compared with US$2.2 billion during the same period in 2005. These figures come from Chile's Foreign Investment Committee (FIC).

"They show that foreign investors have confidence in Chile's economy," said FIC president Carlos Eduardo Mena.

The top foreign investor is Canadian company Brook-Field Asset Management, which bought Chilean electric company Transelec for US$1.2 billion and thus accounts for one third of the total foreign investment.

BHP Billiton's Escondida copper mine, located in northern Chile, invested US$150 million in the first eight months of 2006, and the third largest investment was by German company K+S Salt of the Americas Holding, paying US$118 million for Chilean salt company Sal Lobos.

While overall foreign investment grew, U.S. investment in Chile has dropped significantly since 2003, accounting for only 2.8 percent of foreign investment in 2005.

In 2001, U.S. investment totaled US$1.8 billion, US$550 million in 2002, US$373 million in 2003, US$124 million in 2004 and just US$78 million last year.

Michael Grasty, president of Chilean-North American Chamber of Commerce, said he is concerned. "I don't think Chile is doing something wrong, but either it is not doing anything new, or it is not being sufficiently aggressive. This could be a shared responsibility between the business community and the government," he said.

Grasty argued that one problem may be that educational level in Chile is insufficient, pointing out, for instance, that only two percent of Chileans speak English. The Santiago Times