Minister Palacios from Davos: “Here nobody can believe that Chile is not taking advantage of the international economic conditions to grow”

The Economy, Development and Tourism Minister, Lucas Palacios, spoke this morning about the busy schedule of meetings he has had with different investors and representatives from countries that invest in Chile, as part of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

In an interview on the program “Información Privilegiada” that airs on the Duna radio station, the minister highlighted his bilateral meetings with senior executives from international tech companies, such as Teresa Carlson, Vice President of Worldwide Public Sector at Amazon Web Services (AWS), and talks with Eduardo Padilla Silva, CEO of Femsa, the parent company of chains like Cruz Verde, Oxxo and Maicao, among others.

“Tomorrow I have a meeting with Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, and also with the CEO of Uber, and yesterday I spoke with people from Femsa. In short, I am meeting with many tech companies that are looking to invest in Chile. This is important because they want first-hand knowledge about what is happening in our country and the institutional strategy we are using, which makes a lot of sense to them,” said Minister Palacios.

The Economy Minister affirmed that these opportunities for direct contact with investors are a good way to reinforce the message of confidence in the soundness of Chile’s political and economic system.

“There are international companies that want to invest in Chile, since they realize that we will get through the current situation. Chile has shown signs of resolving its problems through its institutions, which is what we are doing and it is being acknowledged,” he stated.

When asked about the tone used to refer to our country in the different meetings at the forum, the minister indicated that “here nobody can believe that Chile’s growth has suddenly plummeted and that it is not taking advantage of international economic conditions to grow more, create higher-salaried jobs and attract more investment.”

“Representatives from other countries agree that it is one thing to want to improve social conditions and something else entirely to negatively affect the economy,” he added.

However, he underscored that, despite internal difficulties, “the fact that our country has managed the social crisis through its institutions, with a very clear strategy from the President, and national agreements on social, constitutional and social peace matters, has generated positive attention.”

IMF Downgrade
Consulted about the “significant downgrade” of Chile's GDP anticipated yesterday by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its World Economic Outlook, Minister Palacios described the announcement as “very unfortunate” since “our country needs to grow and is a nation that has always been well-linked to the international scene.”

In his analysis, he explained that the recent trade agreement between China and the United States is generating “greater demand for Chilean products and commodities, such as copper and other metals. Therefore, it is a good time for Chile from an international perspective and now the challenge is to give the right signals to revert the current pessimistic trend in matters of trade and investment. We have to react quickly as our country has always done, rising to the challenge posed by difficulties.”

“Therefore, if what we want is to get our social agenda off the ground, if what we want is to take advantage of this international bonanza, we have to overcome the pessimism among some people in Chile and build the trust we need to once again invest and resume our pace of growth as soon as possible,” he said.

Minister Palacios added that, with respect to this, “the Government has done its part. The Budget for the year 2020 is very substantial, almost 10% more than that for 2019. The social agenda bills have already been introduced in congress. In other words, we have done everything we can, but the State represents only 22% of the economy and 18% of investment, so we also need private-sector stakeholders, the rest of the economy, to join in and trust our country because that will benefit everyone.”