In December 2007, after a thorough analysis of how to further develop Chile´s role as a member of the globalized world, President Michelle Bachelet announced a new institutional framework designed to provide general coordination of all activities involving Chile´s image both at home and abroad.
Prior to this, the mission of promoting Chile was being executed by several different government agencies, each one approaching the task from its own perspective or area of responsibility. This proved to be increasingly inappropriate in the context of today´s globalization.
Thus, the Proyecto Chile – Imagen País office was created with the aim of bringing together all these different initiatives and generating a long-term strategy to position Chile as a unique and competitive country. Juan Gabriel Valdés is its Executive Director, reporting directly to the President.
Taking a second step and as one of the main tasks assigned to this office, President Bachelet proposed that a foundation be created to handle all issues related to the concept of “Imagen País” (Country Image). As a result of this presidential mandate, Fundación Imagen de Chile officially opened its doors on June 5th, 2009. This organism has a Board of Directors headed by the Foreign Affairs Minister and whose 19 members hail from the public and private sectors. Its statutes underline its core objective: “to boost, develop, sponsor, fund, coordinate and promote the competitive identity of our country abroad, thereby contributing to its growth”.
The Foundation´s mission is to establish a conceptual brand and propose the main guidelines to provide coherence and coordination for the activities that both the government and private sector have carried out to promote Chile ´s specific sectors or the country in general. These efforts will contribute to increasing the effectiveness of agencies such as ProChile, Sernatur, and Dirac, the Foreign Investment Committee and, more generally, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself and its external network in terms of its sectorial promotion or general advocacy of Chile abroad.
