President Piñera announces a long-term infrastructure plan and calls for renewed investment
The President stressed that "we have to recover the capacity to invest, as this is essential for growth, which itself is vital for generating jobs, improving wages, creating opportunities and financing public spending in a healthy manner."
In a speech given on Thursday at the annual breakfast organized by the Chilean Chamber of Construction (CChC), President Sebastían Piñera indicated that the government is working on an infrastructure plan to cover the next four decades, and invited business representatives to work together for growth "so as to be up to this tremendous challenge and mission that lies ahead."
"Our goal is to expand our country’s infrastructure, or rather investment in infrastructure, by an average of around 10% per year. As you know, investment in Chile has fallen systematically and consecutively over the last four years. Consequently, we must reverse this trend and recover the capacity to invest, as this is essential for growth, which itself is essential for generating jobs, improving wages, creating opportunities and financing public spending in a healthy manner,” said the President of Chile to an audience of more than 800 guests.
President Piñera stated that the intention is to reach a figure close to US$2 billion per annum in terms of concessions. He also pointed out that "we have to adapt our infrastructure to new knowledge, new technologies, and the new realities of the 21st century." He underlined the concern that the existing infrastructure must be used more efficiently in order to fulfill a social task focused on improving connectivity and boosting standards of living.
The President stressed that the government will seek to facilitate investments through the Servicio Único de Facilitación de Inversión (Special Service to Encourage Investment). He also noted that work is underway on a tender for eight infrastructural highways spanning more than 1,500 kilometers, the use of technology to improve the flow of traffic on the roads, on the Plan TransMilenio (TransMillennium Plan), the aim of which is to transform the country's public transport system by building close to 130 more kilometers of Metro lines, and dealing with the problem of water, among others.
Finally, President Piñera asked the business owners to do their best in order to "allow our country to overcome this infrastructure deficit, as we know we have to make up for lost time", and thus convert Chile into the first country in Latin America to overcome poverty and become a developed nation through unity and democracy.
During the event, the President of the CChC, Sergio Torretti, gave the President a document entitled "Territorial Development of Chile: Seven Proposals from Across Chile," which is designed to contribute to gathering data on the needs of each area of the country.
The breakfast was also attended by the respective ministers for the Economy, Social Development, Education, Labor, Housing and Urban Planning, Public Works, Transport and Telecommunications, and Sports, as well as other government authorities and representatives from the construction sector.