US$22 billion investment proposed for Chile

According to news reports Chile’s construction chamber (CChC) has proposed a US$22.6 billion investment plan to reactivate the country’s infrastructure sector amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have to develop an intense investment plan with a significant contribution from the public sector, but also promoting private investment,” said CChC head Patricio Donoso while presenting the proposal.

“What we are presenting here is a plan that is in line with that concern. Of the US$22.6 billion, US$12.3 billion are private investments.” 

South America is currently one of the global ‘hot spots’ for Covid-19 cases. Brazil has had over 930,000 confirmed cases and over 45,000 deaths – the third worst in the world. Chile has over 180,000 confirmed cases and the health minister recently resigned over the government’s handling of the pandemic.

CChC’s plan is divided into US$9.6 billion for housing development and US$13 billion for infrastructure projects.

With respect to the infrastructure projects, CChC suggest executing 665 projects that are in the government’s portfolio but have yet to start works. Of these, 331 are road projects, 224 are water projects, five are energy and mining initiatives and 105 are hospital infrastructure works.

CChC estimated that the country’s construction sector will not fully recover until 2022.

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