A non-profit organization that promotes Chile as an information-technology outsourcing destination and helps firms from the South American nation expand abroad is eyeing an office in Atlanta.
Chile-IT was launched last year as the global services arm of Chile’s main IT industry group, the Chilean Association of IT Companies, or ACTI, which has more than 150 members.
The organization has an office in New York and will decide by June whether to put its second U.S. office in Atlanta or another city.
Chile IT is mainly focusing on assisting Chilean companies in their plans to “internationalize,” said Juan Carlos Munoz, the organization’s CEO.
“We’re thinking seriously about opening operations in Atlanta,” Mr. Munoz told GlobalAtlanta. “It’s a good hub for the Southeast of the U.S., (and) the infrastructure is very good and the pricing is very good compared to New York.”
Mr. Munoz also noted that Atlanta has the Chilean-American Chamber of Commerce of the South, an honorary consulate and a government trade promotion office, ProChile, which opened last year to help small- to medium-sized companies trade and conduct business in the U.S.
Alberto Valenzuela, president of the Chilean chamber, said the IT group would be another asset to help attract more Chilean companies to Georgia. The chamber, founded in 2007, has about 10 Chilean member companies. Among its charter members was Arauco Woods Products Inc., a forest products exporter from Chile with offices in Atlanta.
“Every opportunity when we see Chilean companies opening an office in the U.S., we try to capture their attention to Atlanta,” Mr. Valenzuela said.
Chilean IT firms have won many contracts throughout Latin America but haven’t done much business directly in the U.S. yet, Mr. Munoz said. Neither he nor Mr. Valenzuela could think of any Chilean IT companies that have invested in Georgia.
Chile’s IT sector offers advantages in software development, network security, managed security, remote management services, electronic banking and other sectors, Mr. Munoz said. Chile also shares a time zone with the U.S. East Coast, so companies can collaborate with their Chilean teams in real time.
“The Chilean IT industry grew less than 10 percent last year because it was a recession year, although the IT services provided from Chile grew more,” Mr. Munoz said. “The industry ($3.3 billion) is still a small portion of our GDP, but we expect to be able to provide services to the U.S. of more than $5 billion in the next 5 years.”
Source:http://www.globalatlanta.com/article/23912/
