In order to house companies that are about to start operations or for companies that need to expand their operations in Coyol Free Zone, the Costa Rican industrial complex is building new infrastructure for an area equivalent to 67,347 square meters.
According to information disseminated by the industrial park located in Alajuela, Costa Rica, 17,725 square meters are currently being built, corresponding to new expansion processes of companies already installed and requiring more physical space to operate.
Alejandro Giammattei, elected president of Guatemala, will propose to the authorities of the North American country that a special economic zone covering both sides of the border be developed.
Guatemala's president-elect is wasting no time, since four months after taking office, he is already making investment proposals to neighboring countries. In this case, he will do so in Mexico, where on September 20 he will meet with Lopez Obrador and will deliver a file on the issues he proposes to work on in the coming years.
In Guatemala, businessmen are asking the incoming government to create a public policy on foreign investment that incorporates issues such as fair and equitable treatment of investments, the minimum standard of treatment and the definition of arbitrariness.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country is not having its best moment, as figures from the Bank of Guatemala indicate that in 2018 the flow captured was $1.031 million, 12% less than the $1.170 million reported in 2017. See official data.
Panama and Honduras were the only two Central American countries to report increases in foreign direct investment in 2018 over the previous year, with year-on-year changes of 36% and 3%, respectively.
The growth of investments directed to Panama, which concentrated 51% of the sub-regional total, explained the increase that was reached in 2018 in Central America (9.4%), since except Panama and Honduras, the Central American countries received less Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) than in 2017, explains the report "Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2019", produced by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
Because of higher dividend repatriation and lower reinvestment of earnings, Foreign Direct Investment flows reported during the first quarter of the year totaled $177 million, 55% less than in the same period in 2018.
Central Reserve Bank (BCR) figures detail that between January and March 2018, and the same period in 2019, the attraction of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) was reduced by $224 million, falling from $401 million to $177 million.
During 2018, Guatemala received $1.175 million in FDI, barely 0.5% more than the investment reported in 2017, mainly because of the political and legal uncertainty that ruled the country.
Figures from the Banco de Guatemala (Banguat) report that in the last five years, the country has gained $6,139 million in foreign direct investment (FDI), being 2014 the one that registered the highest year-on-year increase when reporting a 7% rate regarding 2013.
Israeli government officials have announced that they plan to invest close to $2 billion in various businesses in the sectors of agriculture, medicine and education.
The investment will be made through the Guatemalan-Israel Fund for Investment and Development in Guatemala, and this seeks to make the Central American country the center of Israeli business in the region.
Five out of ten Guatemalan entrepreneurs believe that the current legal landscape of the country "could have repercussions" for the business sector.
From a statement issued by the Coordinating Committee of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial and Financial Associations, CACIF:
Industrial and financial sectors are forecasting the best results, while construction and tourism show lags in different variables that are analyzed in the diagnosis of Perception of Business Activities.
Costa Rica's lack of actions to address the problems of road infrastructure is beginning to take its toll directly, preventing the development of areas with clear productive vocation.
The very success of an area with comparative advantages for operating free zones, call centers and corporate offices, such as those close to Juan Santamaria International Airport, has become a detonator triggering the paralysis suffered by investments in construction of new buildings, simply because of vehicle congestion in Belen, in the Greater Metropolitan area of Costa Rica, is so bad that it is normal to take up to 50 minutes to travel 4 kilometers from the area in question to the access road to the center of the capital.
It has been announced that public use regulations that will allow construction of hotels, restaurants, transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure within protected areas will be issued midyear.
The regulation is being prepared by the Tourism Authority of Panama, the Panamanian Chamber of Tourism and the Ministry of Environment, as part of the EcoturAP project, announced by the Varela administration in March this year. This initiative aims to exploit protected areas in order to develop sustainable and ecological tourism.
This year multinational plans to invest that amount in remodeling, maintenance, new units, electronic commerce, and logistics and distribution.
From a statement issued by Walmart of Mexico and Central America:
Mexico City, 10 March 2016.- In 2016 Walmart de Mexico and Central America will invest an estimated $14.700 million pesos ($866 million), 17% higher than the total amount invested last year.
Poverty has declined, foreign investment has quintupled in a decade, the economy has grown more than the average in Central America and Nicaraguan businessmen are applauding it.
Carlos Pellas, one of the most successful Central American businessmen with investments in sectors relating to financial insurance, agribusiness, information technology, energy, vehicle distribution, and production and beer and spirits, did not make a statement in a merely personal capacity but rather one relating to the economy of his country, Nicaragua, when he said that "people think that things are going well, there is a lot of investment, construction has grown, it is a dynamic sector, you can tell that from one look".
The electricity distributor Delsur will be investing $14 million in 2015 in the construction of new substations and the purchase of technical and protective equipment.
In 2014 the distribution of Electricity Delsur invested $13 million in several works to strengthen its electrical system, and this year representatives announced plans to increase the amount to $14 million, to be allocated to the expansion of the electricity network, the modernization of the commercial system which that measures the energy consumption of users, and the acquisition of new technical equipment, among other things.
In the absence of concrete actions by the state, companies in the province of Limón have announced that they will promote economic development in the area using foreign investment.
In order to generate more projects to develop economic activity in the province of Limón, employers in the area are calling for foreign investors who have an affinity with the region.
The multinational plans to change the working culture by implementing a "role models and flexible schedules based on achievement of specific objectives."
Fabricio Kaplan Vice President of Human Resources at Unilever Central America, the Caribbean and Andean, explained in an interview conducted by Humberto Galo for Laprensa.com.ni that they are using in Nicaragua a new form of work already deployed in Colombia which "aims to change the work culture by implementing role models and flexible schedules based on achievement of specific objectives. "