Ignacio Fernández, General Director of ProChile, is one of the central figures leading Chile’s international expansion strategy and promoting its transformation into a global player in innovation, technology, and services. With a long career in foreign trade and economic diplomacy, Fernández has been instrumental in forging the country’s new positioning beyond its traditional exports of copper, wine, and fruit — showcasing Chile as a reliable and innovative partner for markets seeking technological and sustainable solutions.
In this exclusive conversation with LatinGulf.ae, Fernández reflects on Chile’s growing role as an exporter of knowledge and innovation, explains the country’s participation in the Innovation Summit Chile–Dubai 2025, and outlines how the UAE and Gulf region represent the next frontier for Chilean talent, entrepreneurship, and investment.
Chile is advancing in the internationalization of its knowledge economy. How do you assess the country’s global position in the export of technology-based services and innovation solutions, and what opportunities do you see for scaling this offer to markets like the United Arab Emirates?
First of all, it’s important to highlight the remarkable progress Chile has made in exporting services. While the country is globally recognized for its mining, wine, seafood, and fruit exports, these productive sectors — combined with several other factors — have given rise to a wide range of service providers, driving a significant leap in this area.
The numbers speak for themselves: in 2024, Chile’s total export of services to the world reached USD 2.869 billion, an 18% increase compared to 2023. During the first half of this year, we continued breaking records, with accumulated exports of USD 1.572 billion, up 13.4% from the same period in 2024.
Chile is also a natural testbed for global and sustainable solutions. Although small in population — about 19 million people — we are globally perceived as a serious, stable, and reliable country for doing business, with a strong economy, rich natural resources, and an open attitude toward international trade. We are already among the top global suppliers of fresh and dried fruit, meat, and dairy products with high quality standards, and now we want to lead in exporting services as well.
Today, we export services to more than 121 markets, including the United States, Peru, Colombia, and the United Kingdom. This growth reflects our success in diversifying our service offerings and expanding internationally through strong public–private collaboration, investment in infrastructure and technology, and continuous innovation.
In that context, the United Arab Emirates offers a unique opportunity to diversify our service exports. The UAE is a hub for startups and global investors, and we see the potential to deliver high-quality technological solutions — from software design, data processing, and app development to education, finance, health, agriculture, construction, and consulting — not only to the UAE but across the Middle East and Gulf region.
As General Director of ProChile, how do you evaluate the current state of Chilean innovation, and how can it stand out internationally, particularly in markets like the United Arab Emirates?
I am extremely proud of what Chile has achieved in terms of innovation over the last decades. According to the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2025, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Chile ranked first in innovation in Latin America among 139 countries — ahead of regional powerhouses such as Brazil and Mexico.
Chile’s export value chain is vast, with countless service providers working constantly to improve processes and deliver innovative, technology-driven solutions. These capabilities are what we aim to share with the world — and the UAE offers a perfect platform for that.
In fact, during the first half of 2025, Chile’s service exports to the UAE reached USD 1.3 million, representing a 55% growth over the same period the previous year. This shows how quickly Chilean companies are gaining traction in the market. Currently, 47 Chilean firms are actively exporting services to the Emirates — a modest number, but one with enormous potential for expansion.
We have both the experience and the capacity to share this knowledge globally, and showcasing it in the UAE is one of our top strategic objectives.
What are ProChile’s main strategic objectives for its participation in the Innovation Summit Chile–Dubai 2025, both in the short and medium term? What types of alliances do you hope to establish during this mission in Dubai (public, private, research, investment)?
We are traveling with 12 innovative service companies, offering a diverse range of solutions across sectors such as mining, education, finance, construction, and even entertainment. This is a joint public–private initiative aimed at showcasing our capabilities so that local companies and investors in the UAE can learn about Chile’s innovation potential and explore new business and investment opportunities.
The UAE and the Gulf region are reliable and promising platforms for expanding Chilean business operations. During the Innovation Summit, we will hold high-level meetings, and the Chilean companies will participate in pitch sessions with local investors, on-site visits, and networking events with venture capital firms and accelerators.
Given your extensive background in international trade and policy, in which sectors do you see the greatest potential for collaboration or technology exchange between Chile and the UAE?
If we look at the Chilean services currently leading exports to this market, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are at the forefront — particularly software development, data analytics, and app design. There’s also strong interest in maintenance and repair services, business management, financial consulting, and advertising, all of which are essential components of the digital economy.
Additionally, Chile’s geographic and productive diversity has enabled the development of technological solutions for industries in which we are global leaders, such as mining, including its entire value chain. In this sense, I see enormous opportunities for both countries to collaborate — combining Chile’s technological expertise and the UAE’s innovation ecosystem — to grow together.
What role do you expect the Chilean delegation to play at this event in positioning Chile as a reliable innovation partner for Gulf investors and governments?
It’s worth noting that in 2024, President Gabriel Boric became the first Chilean head of state to visit the United Arab Emirates — a historic and strategically productive mission. During that visit, Chile signed its first-ever Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with a Middle Eastern and Gulf nation.
This agreement guarantees preferential market access for 97% of Chile’s exportable goods, opening major opportunities not only in food but also in mining, renewable energy, innovation, and services.
The Innovation Summit Chile–Dubai 2025 is, therefore, the first major event where ProChile is officially showcasing this broader export offer to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Middle Eastern countries.
We are coordinating closely with our commercial office in Dubai to continuously assess market opportunities. Combined with our regular dialogue with innovation-driven companies and industry associations, this collaboration has allowed us to assemble a strong delegation of 12 Chilean companies.
The response to this mission was overwhelmingly positive, with companies presenting robust export-ready projects — from chemical-free metallurgical efficiency and SaaS solutions for asset management, to sustainable insulation technologies for construction, AI tools for teachers, and digital growth platforms for sports and gaming industries.
We’ve developed a comprehensive working agenda that will allow these companies to present their solutions to peers, investors, and potential partners across the region — always with the goal of generating new business opportunities for Chile’s growing innovation sector.
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