I thought that Chile with its StartupChile was somewhere on the chart.
As StartupChile alumn I can say that it is getting better doing business in Chile. For real!
One thing to keep in mind here is never trust the governments in most countries. Find the rules, play by them, but if you are getting money from the government, don't do that as a foreigner. It's asking for trouble.
Edit: I can't think of any government in the world where I would ask for money as a foreigner. That just strikes me as asking for serious trouble.
since my suggestion was downvoted, let me explain....
In every country, there is a fear of foreigners coming in to "take our jobs." A foreign businessman needs to be careful because any grants will be subject to the government having to deal with this fear. That doesn't mean don't take government contracts. But it does mean that if you are going to apply for government grants, you really want a national doing this for you.
A second thing to think about is the problem of crony capitalism (think of no-bid Haliburton contracts in Iraq or former bank executives bailing out their buddies--- this is not that different in the US but is often more obvious in other countries). In general if you have good contacts, you can get good grants and contracts. If you do not, you cannot. As a foreigner you probably don't esp, if you are lured in with the hopes of government money.
This is really a matter of being risk adverse. Only go for government help when you have the contacts to make it work effectively.
Chile is pretty well ranked, coming in at #7 in the Heritage Foundation index, and #1 for Latin America.[1]
We were accepted to Startup Chile, and will be flying to Chile next week. I can't report on the state of Chile now, but I did visit the country in 2001 and remember being impressed at the time at how capitalist it was, compared to the USA. (culturally capitalist, which is not the same as having an entrepreneurial culture, which Startup Chile is working to improve.)
When you think about it, Startup Chile is a pretty audacious program. They put in twice the money of most bootstrapping programs, covering twice the period, and give you a 1 year visa for living and working in Chile. Can you imagine how hard it would be to get free one year visas for entrepreneurs coming to the USA? Even with a merit based contest like SU Chile?
There's a distinct possibility that we may remain in Chile for several years after the program, provided that continuing the Visa doesn't turn out to be a problem (and the reports I've read indicate that its generally not a problem at all.)
