This month AmCham incorporates a new leader – Rodrigo Ballivián, the Chamber’s recently appointed executive director. Rodrigo joins AmCham from the private sector where he has held leadership roles in business associations, non-profit organizations and multinational companies. He speaks of the challenges and opportunities facing AmCham in this month’s interview in bUSiness CHILE.

What headline would AmCham like to see on the cover of bUSiness Chile in 2015? This is the question the Chamber’s board of directors asked itself at its annual offsite planning session held in late November.

The consensus was that AmCham’s mission would best be achieved if the Chamber focuses on working to reassert the US leadership position in Chile with respect to trade and investment.

Rarely has a commercial disagreement involving an asset in Chile captured such global interest as the dispute that has arisen between Codelco and Anglo American in connection with the former’s option to acquire a stake in the latter’s Anglo Sur property (formerly Disputada de las Condes).

Education has taken the spotlight in Chile. It is at the heart of competitiveness, the ability to innovate, and is the basis for a growing middle class to share in the growing opportunities of a dynamic economy. It speaks well of Chile that there is broad-based support for improvement in education – it is a sign of development.

La educación ha concentrado la atención en Chile. Está al centro de la competitividad, la capacidad de innovar y es la base para que una clase media en aumento comparta las crecientes oportunidades de una economía dinámica. Habla bien de Chile el hecho de que haya un amplio respaldo para efectuar mejoras en materia de educación: es una señal de desarrollo.

Energy supply is a key strategic consideration for Chile as it is for other countries. But developed countries consume up to four times more energy per capita than Chile and at much lower costs. To keep up with projected economic growth, it is estimated that Chile will need to nearly triple its annual power output to some 160,000 gigawatt hours by 2030.

Demandas por una educación mejor y más efectiva, demandas por una Patagonia prístina, demandas por una mejor protección al consumidor de cara a un aparente fraude por parte de una firma minorista local… estas son las noticias que acaparan los titulares de los medios de comunicación local de Chile y están generando mucha preocupación en las comunidades política, académica y empresarial.

¿Por qué hay tantas demandas?

Demands for better and more effective education, demands for a pristine Patagonia, demands for better consumer protection in the wake of an apparent fraud by a domestic retailer   - this is the news capturing the headlines of Chile’ s local media and causing the political, academic, and business communities much concern.

Why are there so many demands?

Chile is blessed with diverse ecosystems that support a rich variety of plant and animal life from its forests, lakes and streams, to the marine habitats along its nearly 3,000-mile coastline.

This diversity is the basis of a dynamic economy and a source of employment both directly through resource production, for example in its world-class forestry industry, and indirectly by providing a varied and unique landscape for industries such as tourism to grow.

And protecting this biodiversity can

Chile tiene la bendición de contar con diversos ecosistemas que sustentan una rica variedad de vida animal y vegetal, desde bosques, lagos y arroyos hasta habitantes marinos a lo largo de su borde costero de casi 2.000 kilómetros.

Esta diversidad es la base de una economía dinámica además de una fuente de empleo tanto directa -a través de la producción de recursos, como por ejemplo en su industria forestal de clase mundial- como indirecta a través de la entrega de paisajes variados y únicos para que industrias como el turismo c