• Representatives from multinational companies such as Mercado Libre, SoftServe, Infosys, and Front traveled to Chillán, the capital of Chile’s Ñuble Region, to take part in the meeting, whose goal was to discuss the region’s advantages for attracting foreign investment, the challenges of strengthening local talent, and other key issues.

Under the framework of the collaboration agreement between the Ñuble Regional Government and InvestChile to attract investment, Ñuble’s Regional Governor, Óscar Crisóstomo, and InvestChile Executive Director, Karla Flores, led the roundtable discussion titled Regional Challenges and Opportunities for the Development of the Global Services Industry in Ñuble. The event brought together senior executives from leading global technology companies including Mercado Libre, multinational consulting firm Infosys, operations platform Front, and digital engineering company SoftServe.

The event, jointly organized by the Ñuble Regional Government and InvestChile with the participation of the Chilean Economic Development Agency (CORFO), aimed to create a space for dialogue to identify key factors for attracting and consolidating foreign investment in the region, while also analyzing incentives and the required professional profiles.

Governor Crisóstomo emphasized the long-term vision for the region. “We want to turn Ñuble into a technology development hub that offers more and better opportunities for our young people. We are moving toward a more diverse economic model that adds value to our traditional production base, with the goal of making Ñuble the best region to live in—where talent and innovation are the drivers of our growth. Meetings like this position the Ñuble Region as a pioneer by creating direct working groups with the technology industry, where we can highlight the region’s competitiveness, especially its comparative level of security compared to other regions,” he said.

InvestChile Director, Karla Flores, highlighted the importance of this initiative to attract investment, noting that “the governor opened a space for us to bring international companies together.” She also stressed that “the positive outcome of this conversation is that we all reached the conclusion that the most important thing is to coordinate efforts to train people, so they can acquire digital skills and English-language proficiency. When you train people, it is not an expense—it is an investment, and it lasts. In the end, that sends a strong signal to other professionals and companies that in Ñuble there are real opportunities to continue growing.”

From the private sector, participants emphasized the vital importance of training professionals with strong English skills in order to export services from Ñuble to the world. “Strengthening technical and engineering education, combined with English communication skills, is essential to enable the export of IT services. The Ñuble Region has a unique opportunity to develop talent equipped with these competencies, positioning itself as a hub for technology-driven growth,” said Nitin Baravkar, Country Head for Chile and Argentina at Infosys.

Along the same lines, Cristóbal Aninat, Head of Government Relations at Mercado Libre, highlighted the importance of digitalization. “In the governor’s vision, there is clear leadership in diversifying Ñuble’s economy and moving toward a more diversified, technology-driven production matrix. We believe this region can foster the training of software developers, the digitalization of SMEs, and digital literacy across the population, giving rise to greater connectivity and generating an entrepreneurial ecosystem with higher productivity and greater social inclusion,” he said

SoftServe: A success story already established

A tangible example that this model can work is SoftServe. The company, founded in Ukraine and specializing in digital engineering, opened its second software development center in Chile in Chillán in 2025. It has already hired a team of 25 local developers, and aims to reach at least 50.

Alejandro Zeballos, Country Learning & Development Manager at SoftServe, shared his experience in the region. “The reception to our proposal from educational institutions and the students’ interest in participating in our program has been very positive. We exceeded our initial expectations when we launched these programs, and we see a region and a talent pool that are actively seeking opportunities to grow. We believe we have very strong projects to attract to the region,” he said.

The overarching goal is to build a robust business ecosystem in which these companies not only operate, but also act as seedbeds for developers, ensuring future, high-quality employment opportunities. The meeting concluded with a commitment to continue working on a regional roadmap to turn these conversations into concrete investments that drive job creation and the modernization of the Ñuble Region.