This article analyzes the history of the Chilean Economic Development Agency (CORFO) along 30 years of its existence, from 1939 to 1969. Based on official sources, the text studies the origins of this agency, the formulation of its law, the plans for immediate action to modernize the Chilean economy, the development and research institutions and companies that were created according to its plans for development. This article pays particular attention to the projects implemented by CORFO to attain economic and social modernization in Chile in the 20th century and shows that the aforementioned thirty years were the most fruitful in the history of CORFO.