Chile seeks more Chinese investment
Annual export and import flows between China and Chile are growing at more than 20 per cent
Chile, which counts China as its biggest export destination thanks to a brisk trade in copper, fruit, wine and seafood, is seeking to boost Chinese investment, particularly on infrastructure and energy projects.
Chinese exports to Chile more than quadrupled to US$13 billion last year, while Chile's exports to China more than tripled to US$20 billion in the same period, according to the World Trade Organisation's International Trade Centre. The average annual growth of both flows exceeded 20 per cent.
Some 85 per cent of Chile's exports to China are copper and iron ore and related semi-processed minerals.
But China provided less than US$1 billion of foreign direct investment to Chile last year out of the South American country's total FDI of US$22 billion. That is partly to do with the distance between the two nations and China's lack of familiarity with Chile's business environment.
"We are expecting to see a new wave of Chinese investment in our country, after China Construction Bank was fully licensed to operate in Chile since the second quarter of this year," Jorge Pizarro Cristi, executive vice-president of Chile's foreign investment committee, told the South China Morning Post.