The government of Chile is expected to open a trade office in Atlanta on Dec. 7, with the country’s U.S. ambassador, José Goñi, attending the ceremonies.

Chile’s trade commission is called ProChile and operates under the government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

ProChile currently has offices in 35 countries. In the U.S., Prochile has offices in Los Angeles, Miami and Washington.

Chile’s vice minister for international trade and economic affairs, Carlos Furche, will also attend the opening ceremonies as will ProChile director Alicia Frohmann, according to the Chilean American Chamber of Commerce for the South's Web site.

ProChile's Miami office also confirmed to GlobalAtlanta the opening of the trade office in Atlanta.

There will be three days of events surrounding the trade office opening, according to the Chilean chamber. On Dec. 7, there will be a morning seminar at the Metro Atlanta Chamber followed by lunch featuring Chilean recipes and remarks by the ambassador. The trade office will be formally inaugurated in the Metro Chamber board room at 6:30 p.m.

Chile, a South American country of about 16 million people, does not have a consulate general in Atlanta. It does have an honorary consul, Erika Monckeberg.

Last summer, Atlanta-based Equifax Inc. which performs risk analysis for financial companies and compiles consumer credit scores, opened a new software and research center in Santiago, Chile's capital. Equifax picked Chile because of its strong educational system, engineering talent and business climate, according to a news release.

 “We looked at multiple countries but Chile best fit our needs,” Sandeep Gupta, an Equifax vice president, said in the news release. “The combination of Chile’s engineering excellence, political and economic stability, educational system and relatively low costs were difficult to beat.”

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