The latest IJGlobal podcast to have been recorded at the Inter American Development Bank’s conference last week in Panama – PPP Americas – sees the spotlight turn on Chile.

IJGlobal editorial director Angus Leslie Melville talks to Luis Felipe Elton, head of the projects division at the Chilean PPP unit, and discussion turns inevitably to plans for the national infrastructure market.

With a long-established PPP sector, Chile is lauded as one of the mainstays of the Latin American infrastructure market, a bellwether for countries across the region looking to drive private sector involvement in the delivery and operation of national infra.

In this 17-minute interview with Luis, the listener is treated to insightful analysis of infrastructure investment which has seen more than 100 concession-based contracts awarded, 77 of which are currently under construction or operational.

In spite of recent political unrest in Chile, the PPP sector has remained unscathed and retains its reputation for having attracted local and international investment… and that’s not about to change.

Luis invited international bidders and advisers to take a fresh look at the Chilean market: “Nowadays we are very active in the business of concession contracts in Chile because we currently have projects in the bidding phase for an amount of almost $5 billion – 5 of which are for highways.

“The invitation for you is to visit Chile to learn about out impressive project pipeline and to evaluate the participation of your companies in our biding processes.”

Luis pointed out that investors and contractors from 16 countries – ranging from America, Europe, Asia and Oceania – already have a presence in Chile… and they want to build on this.

While Chile is working to improve the procurement environment to make it even more attractive to international and local bidders, it is also laying the groundwork for a pipeline of deals.

“We are going to launch more projects to market in the coming months,” said Luis. “Last Friday (15 July), we launched the second concession of Route 5 between Santiago and Los Vilos was called for tender with an amount in civil works for around $1.2 billion.

“It is also worth mentioning that to date we have 7 highways, 5 regional airports, 17 hospitals, a cable car, and one irrigation reservoir – all of these contracts already awarded, some of them in the process of definitive engineering and some others under construction… all of them for more that – and this is a coincidence – for $5 billion.

“We are making progress, but we have to go faster.”

To hear more about the pipeline and Chile’s ambitions, tune into this latest episode.