* Pinera aims to apply business acumen to government
* Billionaire vows to sell stakes in some businesses
* No changes to prudent fiscal policies seen in his rule
By Alonso Soto
SANTIAGO, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Chile's president-elect, billionaire Sebastian Pinera, wants to apply his Midas touch for business to Latin America's most stable economy and the world's No. 1 copper producer.
In his second run for the top seat, conservative Pinera won the run-off vote by a small margin against ex-president Eduardo Frei. That ended the 20-year rule of the center-left and fended off the bitter memories of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's bloody dictatorship that had hurt the right in the past elections.
The son of a prominent centrist politician, Pinera has long sought to distance himself from Pinochet's rule, when more than 3,000 suspected leftists were killed or "disappeared." He wooed moderate voters by portraying himself as the leader of a new right and an entrepreneur who made his fortune with hard work.
Some of Pinera's support comes from former Pinochet allies. His brother Jose was a minister during the dictatorship.
Pinera, who ranks No. 701 on the Forbes global rich list, has said he will set aside his business empire to rule one of Latin America's most stable economies.
"I will sell some (of my) companies ... and dedicate myself to what has been my life calling -- being a good president," Pinera said, wrapping up his campaign this week.
Pinera, 60, is driven and competitive. One friend cautioned he can be a bully who can be reluctant to delegate responsibility.
The Harvard-trained economist made his fortune introducing credit cards in Chile in the 1980s and is a major shareholder in airline LAN. He also has stakes in his favorite soccer team and a television station.
In the last presidential election in 2005, Pinera lost to current President Michelle Bachelet but cemented his position as the leader of the right in Chile, also a top exporter of fruit and salmon.
Bachelet, immensely popular for her handling of the economic crisis, is barred from immediately running for re-election. Her high approval ratings did not help Frei, a stoic civil engineer who had joked he was a "bit boring."
Many Chileans are disenchanted with the ruling center-left "Concertacion" coalition and say the government could have made better use of billions of dollars in copper boom savings. They also are not happy that an old guard dominates politics.
RISK-TAKER
"Of course the Concertacion did good things and we have recognized and applauded that but it shows fatigue," Pinera said. "Its motor has stopped. It has run out of fuel."
Pinera, a father of four who has three grandchildren, flies his own helicopter, is a deep-sea diving enthusiast and is known as a risk-taker who holds stakes in a myriad of businesses.
Pinera, who entered the Senate in 1990 after the end of Pinochet's 17-year dictatorship, says he will apply his business experience to bolster the Chilean economy in the wake of the global financial crisis.
He has vowed to give state-owned enterprises, like the world's top copper miner Codelco, an overhaul to boost efficiency, promising to create a million jobs and boost economic growth to average 6 percent a year after a contraction in 2009 in the first recession in a decade.
Detractors say his plan relies too heavily on a steady global economic recovery and on private sector investment spurring job creation and growth.
Pinera, who frowns at media comparisons to Italian Prime Minister and media mogul billionaire Silvio Berlusconi, is expected to make few changes to the prudent economic policies that have anchored Chile's economic stability.
Critics and rivals have said Pinera ran into a conflict of interests while he was a senator in the 1990s and accused him of using insider information to propel his investments. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Pinera, who founded Chile's first investment bank in the 1980s, was fined around $700,000 in 2007 after being accused of abuse of privileged information a year earlier when he bought shares in LAN a day before it published earnings results. (Editing by Simon Gardner and Bill Trott)