A new country has been added to the ISS list of operating countries. With the acquisition of the facility services company Serviman/Seasur ISS has now taken its geographic expansion into Chile.

"We are entering an exciting market," says Stig Pastwa, International Business Director at ISS A/S. "The Chilean economy has demonstrated solid growth rates for several years and ISS wants to be part of the future development in Chile," he ends.

Serviman will be under the daily management of Juan Ponce, in close coordination with Claus Madsen, the managing director of ISS Argentina.  Serviman is well known as a quality service company, and by far the largest service provider in southern Chile. Serviman is ISO 9001 certified and granted the Safety Administration award in 2001.

In 2003 Serviman had 1.370 employees and a turnover of 30m DKK. The turnover is stemming from general cleaning services, as well as some landscaping and industrial cleaning activities. The portfolio includes leading Chilean companies such as CMPC Celulosa, Supermercados Lider, Almacenes Paris, Ewos Chile, Tiendas Falabella and Universidad San Sebastian.

In the Growth Competitiveness Ranking of the Global Competitiveness Report 2003-2004, released by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Chile emerged as the most competitive country in Latin America, taking an overall 28th place out of 102 economies, ahead of Malaysia (29th), Ireland (30th), China (44th), and Mexico (47th), among others.

Analysing Chile's position in the ranking, the WEF said that "gradually, through a combination of good macroeconomic management and a broad range of institutional reforms, Chile is joining the ranks of the most competitive economies in the world, effectively migrating, in a figurative sense, away from the economically troubled region".