• Minister of Public Works, Jessica López—together with Acting Director of Concessions, Claudio Soto, and InvestChile Director, Karla Flores—presented public infrastructure investment opportunities in Chile during an event in Milan, and held meetings with Italian authorities and companies.

As part of InvestChile Week Europe 2025, Minister of Public Works, Jessica López, led a full agenda of activities in Milan aimed at strengthening collaboration with the Italian public and private sectors, as well as promoting the opportunities Chile offers in infrastructure and public concessions.

The event, which also included the participation of Claudio Soto, Acting Director of Concessions, and Karla Flores, Director of InvestChile, began with a bilateral meeting between the Chilean delegation and authorities from the Lombardy Region, led by its President, Attilio Fontana, and Undersecretary for International Relations, Raffaele Cattaneo, at the headquarters of Assolombarda, one of Italy’s leading business associations. During the meeting, shared challenges in infrastructure were discussed, along with the tools available to facilitate the participation of Lombardy companies in strategic projects in Chile.

Subsequently, López served as the keynote speaker at the business seminar “Opportunities for Italian and Lombardy Companies in Chile,” co-organized by InvestChile, Assolombarda, and the Lombardy Region. The event brought together Italian authorities, business leaders, and investors interested in infrastructure development in Chile. It also featured the participation of Verónica Squinzi, Vice President of Internationalization at Assolombarda; Juan Eduardo Chackiel, Head of the Financial Analysis Division at the General Directorate of Concessions; and Francisca Müller, InvestChile’s Investment Commissioner in Italy.

During her speech, the minister highlighted the portfolio of 15 new concession projects that the Ministry of Public Works will tender between 2025 and 2026, valued at over US$7.8 billion. These include initiatives such as urban cable cars, road works, prisons, and the Valparaíso-Santiago train.

Chilean economic outlook and PPPs

The seminar also featured presentations by Karla Flores, Director of InvestChile, who discussed the country’s economic outlook; Claudio Soto, Acting Director of Concessions, who provided detailed information on Chile’s public-private partnership system; and representatives from financial institutions such as SACE and SIMEST, who discussed financing mechanisms for the international expansion of Italian companies. Additionally, success stories from companies such as Infrastrutture, RINA, and Tokbo—already established in the Chilean market—were shared.

In the afternoon, López held bilateral meetings with representatives from strategic companies including Tokbo, SACE, MERMEC, Mundys, and Protecno, in order to explore partnerships for infrastructure project development in Chile.

InvestChile’s Director emphasized that “there is a lot of common ground with Italian companies and an increasingly strong relationship, especially in the Lombardy Region, with which we have maintained ongoing collaboration. In Italy, and particularly in Lombardy, Chile is viewed as a priority—especially with regard to energy, infrastructure, and mining suppliers—which supports our efforts to diversify the countries investing in our market.”

It is worth noting that Italy is currently the sixth-largest foreign investor in Chile, with a foreign direct investment stock of approximately US$4.8 billion in key sectors such as infrastructure, energy, and services. Additionally, Italian companies have signed more than 15 contracts within Chile’s concessions system, valued at over US$3.9 billion.

InvestChile Week Europe 2025 features more than 40 activities across seven European cities—London, Paris, Berlin, Zurich, Milan, Rome, and Madrid—with the goal of positioning Chile as a regional hub for investment in key sectors such as green hydrogen, electromobility, critical minerals, and public concessions.