Chile has been one of Latin America’s fastest-growing economies, showing steady growth in recent decades. Central to Chile’s positive growth performance has been the implementation of open trade, strong property rights, and accommodative investment policies. Furthermore, the Chilean economy has experienced GDP growth over the past 4 years. Even though, COVID-19 pandemic did cause a contraction in the real GDP, the Chilean economy shows promising growth projections of about 5.5% in 2021. Factors such as these contribute to Chile positioning itself as a trade hub towards the rest of Latin-America and Asia.
Chile offers opportunities in various sectors. First, The Chilean agricultural and food sector is one of Chile’s promising sectors. Currently, Chile is among the top ten agriculture exporters in the world. The sector is willing to change towards a more sustainable and efficient market. Focusing also on water management, since drought is a problem in many parts of the world and so also in Chile. There lie a lot of opportunities for Dutch companies in improving the efficiency of the market, but also in the high quality products produced in Chile.
In addition, transport and logistics are already well developed in Chile, However, the Chilean government is still investing in huge infrastructure projects. A quality logistics infrastructure in Chile is essential to support the large volumes of export and thus have a large positive influence on the economic growth of the country. Their need for a high quality infrastructure offers opportunities for Dutch companies in transport and logistics.
Because of their long coastline Chile has a rich maritime sector with lots of ports which are very developed compared to neighboring countries. Their aquaculture industry has a very large output and is developed, it focuses on sustaining their fish species which is enforced by government policy. Dutch companies can be a part of further developing these sectors by supplying knowledge and state of the art equipment.
Furthermore, Chile has the highest score in the Latin American region on the Global Innovation Index and has ambitious goals in the field of circular economy and waste management. Chile is in need of a well arranged circular system having ambitious goals in the field of circular economy and waste management. There are opportunities here for Dutch companies who have knowledge and technologies necessary for these Chilean goals.
In addition to the above mentioned sectors, Chile has been a global leader in sustainable development and is ambitiously contributing to the climate change agenda. Chilean companies and the government are very willing to invest in recycling, reducing emissions and green energy. Herein lies the opportunity for Dutch companies to extend their operations to Chile.