Ambassador's speech at trade mission's reception in Chile
Ambassador Fiona Clouder delivered a speech to welcome members of the Construction Equipment Association who visited Chile.
A trade mission of the Construction Equipment Association visited Chile to participate in Atexpo Mining Exhibition held in the Northern region of Atacama. In this context, Ambassador Fiona Clouder hosted a reception at her residence and delivered a speech to highlight the importance of this visit for the business priorities of the UK and Chile.
Regarding this visit, Ambassador Clouder said:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Welcome! Bienvenidos. I am delighted to welcome you here tonight.
A few weeks ago I was in London for the visit of Aurora Williams, the Chilean Minister for Mining who met with Hugo Swire, FCO Minister of State who is highly supportive of our work here in Chile. She also spoke in the House of Commons at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on International Mining, attended events during London Metal Week and opened a mining supply chain conference at Canning House.
Mrs Williams made it very clear in London that Chile’s priorities for the mining sector included areas such as geology, water, energy, innovation, community relations, and cost reduction.
Less than a month later we are very pleased to welcome the Construction Equipment Association leading a mining trade mission to Atexpo in Copiapo, Atacama; helping to deliver on some of these priorities.
I know you have had some very long days and lengthy meetings but I also understand you have seen the potential and the genuine opportunities Chile has to offer. I also understand that a number of you have set up or are in the process of setting up agency and distributor agreements. That’s good for Chile’s mining sector and its good for UK Exports.
I was particularly encouraged to learn that a number of the companies on the Mission who are completely new to Chile have had success too. That’s great news. This reinforces to us that our decision to redouble our efforts on mining was the right one.
But this is just the start. We are keen to attract more UK supply and service companies to Chile. And we have a range of UK companies looking to invest in the sector.
To help some of this, we have arranged a Credit line of £1 Billion with UK Export Finance for projects working with Codelco.
We are confident that UK companies will be able to play a significant role in helping Chile’s mining sector across all of its priorities. My mining team here in Chile and in the UK, stand ready to support you with this.
The next event where we plan to have a UK Pavilion is in May in EXPONOR, in Antofagasta. I hope to see many of you back then.
Further information
For more information about this visit, contact Scott Bennett, UK Trade & Investment Mining Officer, British Embassy, Santiago.
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