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China further increases its presence in Chile. This, after the economic offer presented by the company China Railway Construction Corporation for the concession of Route 5 in the Talca-Chillán section, which includes an investment of US $ 804 million, turned out to be the most attractive for the State of all the received through a public tender.
According to the General Directorate of Concessions of the Ministry of Public Works, the offer from China Railway Construction Corporation offered total income from the concession (ITC) for an amount of 29,898,660 UF, about US $ 1,129 million according to the current exchange rate .
With this proposal, the Chinese company managed to prevail over the economic offers presented by the other two companies that participated in the process, Sacyr Concesiones and the Cintra-Intervial consortium. Currently, the Colombian ISA, through its subsidiary Intervial, is in charge of operating the highway.
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The next step of this project is the award of the work, which will be carried out during the first quarter of 2021. It would be the debut of a Chinese firm in highway concessions.
Regarding the presence of international capital in the tenders, the Minister of Public Works, Alfredo Moreno, said that “we see it very positive, we see it well, both Chilean and foreign companies, from any country, are very welcome in Chile” .
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For his part, the general director of Concessions, Hugo Vera, highlighted how competitive the offers were. “The world scenario that we have experienced this year has been highly complex, therefore having three offers, and two of them are extremely competitive, confirms that our concession system is solid and continues to attract investors,” he said.
Meanwhile, the director of Latin American market development of China Railway Construction Corporation, Chen Zhe, said that “we are honored to have participated in this bidding process. In the next step we will have a very close relationship with the MOP, to try to execute the project in the estimated time and budget ”.
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China Railway Construction Corporation has not been the only Asian company showing interest in concessioned infrastructure projects. At the end of August, it was known that China Road and Bridge Corporation, in a consortium with the Spanish company Puentes y Calzadas, also presented the most attractive offer for the Maule hospital concession, which considers the construction of three facilities in the communes of Cauquenes, Constitución. and Parral.
In the last five years, according to data from the General Directorate of Concessions, about a dozen Chinese companies have expressed interest in participating in the bidding processes, by acquiring bases and even specifying the presentation of offers.
The first work awarded to a Chinese consortium was the Las Palmas reservoir in 2018, in charge of China Harbor Engineering Company. A year earlier, in 2017, it became the first Chinese company to bid for a concessioned project, when the second stage of the Américo Vespucio Oriente highway (AVO II) participated in the tender, although without success.
