The construction industry in Chile is one of its important sectors with a market size of USD 18 billion per year, making for 7,5% of its GDP. With its diverse climate and natural perils such as earthquakes, construction needs to meet very high standards which is why the sector is one of the most sophisticated and advanced in Latin America.
Recently, as one of the most affected countries of climate change, the Andean country is actively promoting the transformation to a more sustainable economy and infrastructure by investing into such projects and issuing new laws that increase requirements. Therefore, important developments in the Cleantech sector are happening in areas such as renewable energies, water processing, smart-city or reduction of air pollution. The growing middle class and increased immigration require the construction and modernization of roads, tunnels, rails, airports, ports and hospitals, amongst others. To facilitate this, Chile’s long term infrastructure plan for 2050 foresees an investment of USD 50bn. In August 2020, to boost Chile’s weakened economy due to the pandemic, its government launched an additional economic stimulus program worth 34bn, which focuses on additional sustainable infrastructure projects in 2020 and 2021.
Switzerland traditionally has companies with a great deal of know-how in engineering as well as in areas such as security, logistics and water supply. These companies as well as Cleantech firms have great potential to be part of these future projects.
Read more about the industry and opportunities for Swiss companies in our brochure or get in contact with our experts.
