Happy Holidays from Chile! We hope this holiday season brings you peace, joy and good fortune. 2007 has been a good year for Chile with continued recognition of the country’s advantages and opportunities for foreign direct investment (FDI) and numerous new and secondary investments from multinational corporations (MNCs) and BPO providers.

This Fall, ProChile, the Trade Commission of Chile, partnered with CORFO, Chile’s Economic Development Agency, once again to conduct a media tour in New York to continue promoting Chile as the nearshore destination of choice for IT and BPO services. The week was filled with meetings with MNCs and BPO providers and included a meeting with the Financial Times.

In 2008, we will be revising our outreach strategy to enable broader, deeper and more consistent communications that better convey Chile’s value as a venue for FDI in IT and BPO services. We look forward to sharing more of the new strategy with you in 2008 and keeping you informed about investment and technology opportunities in Chile.

During the Holiday Season more than ever, our thoughts turn gratefully to those who have made our progress possible. In this spirit, we say simply but sincerely...

Thank You and Best Wishes for the Holidays and a Happy New Year.

Kind Regards,

Alejandro Cerda
Trade Commissioner
ProChile New York
info@prochile.us

Table of Contents

Article of the Month
Upcoming Events
Recent Missions/Events
Fast Facts
Contact Us

Article of the Month

Time, “Latin America’s Peculiar New Strength,” Nov. 26, 2007

In the Nov. 26, 2007 issue of Time Magazine, Chile was one of three Latin American countries featured in the article, “Latin America’s Peculiar New Strength.” The article profiles Latin America’s economic growth during this decade and increasing desirability as a location for FDI. A few quotes from the article:

· “Chile, meanwhile, seems to be doing everything right. Though it is small (pop. 16 million), its GDP is $145 billion, one of Latin America's highest per capita, and is expected to grow more than 5% this year with little inflation . . .”

· “Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores, Latin America's largest maritime-transport concern, reflects how Chile has turned itself from a hemispheric outpost into a bridge to the Pacific Basin.”

· “Chile's FDI measures more than 4% of GDP, also tops in South America, largely because Chile keeps corruption, bureaucracy and undue tax burdens out of investors' paths. Its judicial system is perhaps the most transparent in Latin America.”

To read the full article, click on this link.

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Upcoming Events

2008 Outsourcing World Summit: February 18-20, 2008 in Lake Buena Vista, FL

The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) in association with FORTUNE® Custom Projects will host the 11th edition of its conference series – The Outsourcing World Summit. ProChile will participate in this year's summit which will focus on the theme: Built for Change: Reconceptualizing the Corporation in an Era of Outsourcing, Offshoring, and Globalization.

Global Services Conference: March 12 in NYC

ProChile will take part in the 2008 Global Services Conference which will take place in New York City on March 12, 2008. The conference will feature expert discussions around how customers of business and technology services can collaborate to derive maximum value from globalization. The event will include remarks by thought-leaders, peer discussions, workshops and real-world case studies, and will break new ground in providing content to help executives determine how to establish business value in outsourcing engagements.

FT Global Outsourcing and Offshoring Conference:
March 18-19, 2008

Chile will be represented at the Financial Times’ premier offshoring conference in New York in March. This year’s conference will explore how companies are achieving success in outsourcing and offshoring, the market factors that affect the success of global services delivery and the ways in which corporations, advisors and providers must work together to create and sustain success.

Shared Services Week: March 31-April 3, 2008 in Orlando, FL

IQPC’s 12th Annual Shared Services Week is the largest annual gathering of Shared Services professionals in the world. The event is designed to provide executives from start-ups, intermediate and mature shared services with everything they need to know to bring shared services to the next level. ProChile will be present at this year's conference which will feature a series of keynote speeches, an impressive speaker faculty, workshops, master-classes, and the shared service excellence awards.

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Recent Missions/Events

Chilean Missions to New York: October 22-26, 2007

Mission 1
During the week of Oct. 22, the Chilean Economic Development Agency (CORFO) along with the Foro Pro Innovacion and the Chilean Association of Information Technology Companies (ACTI) carried out a public-private mission to meet with U.S. MNCs in an effort to position Chile as a competitive nearshore destination for IT and international services investments (e.g., shared services centers, hi tech centers, and other captive or outsourced operations).

Over the course of the week, we met with MNCs and BPO providers including Accenture, Avon, Bear Stearns, GE, Goldman Sachs, IBM, JPMorgan Chase, Pfizer and numerous others, to understand their business requirements for consolidating Latin American operations, current nearshore/offshore operations, and future plans. We presented Chile’s nearshore advantages, MNC success stories and government grants program to the MNCs.

As part of the mission, ProChile and CORFO conducted outreach to top-tier business and technology media in New York to provide updates on recent investment developments in Chile. Like previous tours, the purpose of the tour was to publicize Chile’s value proposition to North American MNCs, while positively positioning the Latin American market within the global shared services industry and Chile within the Latin American market. Unlike previous tours, we offered the media a chance to speak with officials from ProChile, CORFO and the private sector (i.e., Foro Pro Innovacion and ACTI) about the current business climate, experiences and new opportunities in Chile. During the busy week, we were able to meet with the Financial Times and several new business media contacts were made. We continue to work with several publications to generate positive stories for Chile.

Mission 2
ProChile along with the Chilean Association of Information Technology Companies (ACTI) and the Chilean Economic Development Agency (CORFO) carried out a second mission with seven ITC companies in the context of ProChile’s program of internationalization of ITC services in the U.S. market. The main objective of the visit was to gain first hand knowledge of the market in the aim of achieving business opportunities in the future.

The companies visited the Interop New York, Outsource World, Mobile Business, and VoiceCon exhibitions and conferences, which took place Oct. 23-25.

Additionally, on Oct. 22 we had a consultant present a research paper on exporting ITC to the U.S. and on Oct. 26 we visited Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Incubator Program and MapInfo, one of the companies that was launched by the Program.

Business Opportunities in Chilean Biotech and Clinical Trials Sectors: October 23, 2007 in Boston

The Embassy of Chile to the U.S. and Chile’s Economic Development Agency (CORFO) hosted a conference designed to give MNCs, investors, academics and governmental organizations a comprehensive overview of Chile’s biotech and clinical trials sectors. Attendees heard from Ambassador Fernández, officials from CORFO and a cross section of Chilean companies about offshore and regional operations opportunities in Chile. Attendees also heard about the Chilean Government’s grants and incentives available to organizations pursuing investment and R&D opportunities in biotech and clinical research. For more information about Chile’s biotech and clinical trials sector, please visit this link.

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Fast Facts

Chile Continues to be Ranked as a Top Latin American Location for Business

• Chile was the highest ranked Latin American country in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index released this fall. At #26, Chile was ranked higher than China, India, and all of Eastern Europe.

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Contact Us

About ProChile

ProChile, the Trade Commission of Chile, is part of the General Directorate of International Economic Affairs of Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is responsible for implementing and enhancing Chile’s trade policy. ProChile’s mission is to provide support to small and medium-sized enterprises, helping to encourage and diversify exports of Chilean products and services by increasing the number of export markets and companies. It does so by providing the necessary tools to aid Chile’s economy in its process of going international. ProChile’s Trade Offices and Agencies are located in over 35 countries, covering 90 percent of the destination markets for Chilean exports. For more information please visit www.chileinfo.com or email info@prochile.us.

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