Chile’s Port of Antofagasta supports integration with the bi-oceanic corridor to Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO; BRAZIL – To optimize logistic processes and to contribute to the regional economic reactivation, a guided visit was held at the facilities of Puerto Antofagasta, with the Regional Government, Regional Unit of International Affairs (URAI), Infrastructure and Transport Division of the Regional Government of Antofagasta (GORE), as well as members of the Planning and Logistics Company S.A. (EPL), a Brazilian public organization, which came to strengthen ties based on the integration with the bi-oceanic corridor to Brazil. The Brazilian public organization EPL came to strengthen relations based on the bi-oceanic corridor that will link both countries.

The implementation of the bi-oceanic corridor stands out for its strategic contribution, which is produced by multiple aspects that will contribute to development, commercial, tourism, and environmental, facilitating the integration of the northern area, being a significant opportunity for Antofagasta to enhance the north of the country and port logistics in the region.

Carlos Escobar, manager of Puerto Antofagasta, commented: “This instance allows Puerto Antofagasta to show its dynamic and rich logistics offer, associated to foreign trade and to make known the virtues and projections of development that we have for our Port. Thus, it will allow the public-private actors of both countries to know the opportunities that we offer as actors of the logistics community for future commercial exchange, considering the immediate connectivity with nearby countries, thanks to the bi-oceanic corridor, which opens many doors not only to local trade but also to the international market”.

Eduardo Muñoz, an economist at EPL Brazil, commented that: “The visit is part of a study for the Brazilian State of Mato Grosso Do Sul, to study the possibilities of scaling up the products needed by Antofagasta and the north of Chile, to project cargoes from Antofagasta that can be sent to Brazil”. In the same way, he told us about the goals in Antofagasta: “We seek to promote that Brazilian companies have access to the ports of Chile and know the advantages of exporting their products through the ports of Chile”.

This bi-oceanic corridor was created thanks to a collaborative work between the private and public sectors. The Regional Government of Antofagasta has been a key player in promoting this integration of countries. David Martínez Durán, head of Transportation Infrastructure of the GORE, spoke of the joint work for this corridor: “Our mission is to be able to generate this communication and coordination with the Port of Antofagasta because they will be relevant actors in this corridor. Knowing their future vision and their transcendent and leading role in this project positions the region and the city of Antofagasta as a great gateway to international trade”.

Likewise, Mauricio Zamorano, in charge of the Regional Unit of International Affairs, expressed his opinion on internationalizing trade: “This is a work that allows us to gather important information, coordinating with different public services to have a catalog of suppliers and to know the situation we face as a country. We carried out actions together with the Governor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, indicating that it is in the region’s interest to promote this process, including the region’s indigenous communities”.

PLANNING AND LOGISTICS COMPANY S.A. (EPL)

EPL is a state-owned company whose purpose is to structure and qualify, through studies and research, the integrated logistics planning process, interconnecting highways, railways, ports, airports, and waterways.

In this particular visit to Puerto Antofagasta, there were representatives of the Brazilian government’s planning and logistics company, who got to know the Antofagasta region and its infrastructure of the different localities, to evaluate in the short, medium, and long term the possible investment of Brazilian capital in Antofagasta, which will benefit, strengthen and facilitate the process of the bi-oceanic corridor.