With a delegation of 18 Chilean businessmen and union members and an intense activities agenda, the international area of the Santiago Chamber of Commerce (CCS) carried out a successful business mission to Israel, which -between May 21 and 27- Its purpose was to strengthen ties between Chilean businessmen with their Israeli counterparts, in addition to Get to know the main companies linked to innovation, retail technology, tech and cybersecuritytaking advantage of the country’s reputation as a global innovation hub and “nation of startups”.
The delegation was led by the president of the CCS, María Teresa Vial, and was accompanied by prominent Chilean businessmen, including Andrés Calderón, vice president of Ripley; Juan Alberto Ariztizabal, VP Digital Services at SONDA, Nicolás Corrado, Cybersecurity Lead Partner at Deloitte, among others.
“It was a very profitable mission, because it is very important that the private sector establish relationships that provide business opportunities that generate value for our consumers and for our country in general. We learned about ventures and solutions to problems that are common in both countries, such as water scarcity and security in electronic commerce”, commented the union leader.
María Teresa Vial highlighted that “Israel has a public-private partnership that is an example of what can be achieved with this type of connection and concern for national problems.” Likewise, he pointed out that the start-up ecosystem is vibrant, being an example to learn from them on how to scale and organize from the beginning, in cooperation with the public sector, the solution of problems that are not trivial”.
For a week, the business delegation visited innovation centers such as the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, Start-up Nation Central and the Israel Innovation Institute, as well as the Innovation Authority, the main government-funded entity that It is in charge of promoting innovation, facilitating the growth of the ecosystem and public policies to promote entrepreneurship.
They were also at the country’s main water treatment plant, Shafdan, and at the Watergen company, which developed a device that converts air into water, all considering that Israel is a world leader in the reuse of this resource, with close to 90%
It should be noted that this trade mission had the support of the Israeli Embassy and the Israeli Economic and Commercial Mission in Chile and became more relevant when considering the data from the Undersecretariat for International Economic Relations for 2021, which record that Chile exports to the country Preferably from the Middle East products such as salmon, chemical wood pulp, seeds, blueberries, and walnuts, while manufactures, cleaning supplies, technology, and medical technology are imported from Israel. The commercial exchange between both countries amounts to about US$ 226 million.
