President Piñera presents the Productivity and Competitiveness Agenda
The President of Chile presents the Productivity and Competitiveness Agenda: “Our goal is to double Chile’s capacity to grow, invest, generate jobs, improve salaries and create entrepreneurs”
President Piñera introduced the National Productivity and Entrepreneurship Office, which will promote actions and measures to improve productivity as part of the Government’s agenda for stimulating growth and creating jobs.
President Sebastián Piñera went to the Barrio Italia neighborhood of Providencia in Santiago on Friday, accompanied by Economy Minister José Ramón Valente and Employment Minister Nicolás Monckeberg. There he announced a series of measures to promote entrepreneurship and productivity in order to boost economic development and fuel job creation.
The President introduced the new National Productivity and Entrepreneurship Office (Oficina de Productividad y Emprendimiento Nacional, OPEN), which will report to the Economy Ministry. This office will spearhead the search for measures to increase productivity, eliminate the barriers to entering innovation and facilitate entrepreneurship in Chile. “We want to unleash the power of freedom, creativity, innovation, imagination and entrepreneurship, which are what really make countries progress,” said the President.
Effective immediately, the office will seek to simplify and eliminate red tape and promote other initiatives that facilitate collaborative procurement or the reorganization of micro and small enterprises. “Our goal is to double Chile’s capacity to grow, invest, generate jobs, improve salaries and create entrepreneurs,” added the President.
In addition to the creation of this office, President Piñera announced that a bill is to be sent to Congress on miscellaneous matters related to productivity and entrepreneurship, containing “20 specific, concrete initiatives to reduce bureaucracy and simplify the regulatory burden in order to facilitate the lives of creators, innovators, entrepreneurs and business people”.
The President emphasized that the economy has grown by 5.2% in the first four months of his administration, while investment, following four years of decline, is expected to rise by 5% in 2018. He also emphasized that 180,000 jobs are being created annually. “The more competitive the Chilean economy is, the more efficient it will be and the better it will serve consumers’ needs. Thus, more competition, lower barriers to entry and greater equality of opportunity are among this office’s basic objectives.” said the President.