Santiago de Chile, November 6 (RHC-Mercopress) -- Chile's Finance Ministry Alberto Arenas, and the World Bank Group (WBG), represented by its Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jorge Familiar, signed a cooperation agreement to establish in Chile the first Research and Development Center in Latin America, and the second outside Washington, DC.

The Global Economic Development Indicator Center is a pioneer initiative, which will start operating in the first quarter of 2015. It will carry out an ambitious research program, anchored in the World Bank’s databases.

The main studies and areas of work to be performed by the Research Center include: 'Doing Business' which is an objective measurement of the guidelines regulating business activity and ease of doing business in 189 economies around the world.

Chile’s own 'Sub-National Doing Business', which is a study to conduct an in-depth analysis of the business environment in each region of Chile. The study is being conducted at the request of interested parties and this is the first time it will be performed for Chile. It has already been conducted in countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Italy and Indonesia.

'Women, Business and the Law' will be a report analyzing the barriers faced by women when undertaking entrepreneurial and business activities.

'Comparative Global Agricultural Business Environment Evaluation' is a new World Bank study that seeks to apply the Doing Business methodology to specific sectors.

Enterprise Surveys will collect data for this company survey, the most complete of its type in the world, including data from more than 130,000 companies in 135 countries.

Once the Memorandum of Understanding is signed, work will continue in the final months of this year on the preparation and approval of the remaining documents needed to establish the Chilean Center, such as the Establishment Agreement and the Additional Agreement to Support Center Operations.