Thursday, July 16, 2009

PricewaterhouseCoopers Visit





We spent an interesting couple hours with PwC on Monday! The meeting started with a detailed background of Chilean tax structure followed by a broader discussion of PwC's Chilean operations and Chilean business climate. Our gracious hosts, Mr. Julio Pereira and Mr. Colin Becker, offered tremendous insight. Similar to the AmCham visit earlier in the day, there was no shortage of excellent questions from the class; we could have easily spent another hour with our hosts.

There were a number of important points from the visit. First, the advantage that PwC enjoys having a wide variety of services under one roof…legal, M&A, accounting, tax, etc. The other big accounting firms have a presence in Chile, but none with the breadth of service that PwC offers. Additionally, we got a feel for how slight nuances in tax code and other business regulations have a profound impact on business in Chile. Finally, we saw how a foreign operation often involves a variety of international resources and human capital to service clients in-country and abroad. PwC Chile employs local talent in addition to American expats and other nationalities.

Overall, it was a wondeful visit that provided a wealth of information and context for our later visits.

Cheers!
Team 2: Mary, Xiao, Steve R.

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