The company Enterprise Rent-A-Car has announced it will be investing $12 million in the purchase of 500 vehicles to begin providing a car hire service in the country.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car, through the ANC Group, which operates the franchises Alamo Rent a Car and National Car Rental, will provide a car rental service initially in five strategic points: Liberia, Belen, Lindora, and Juan Santamaría and Daniel Oduber airports.
Construction has begun of a shopping center measuring 2 thousand square meters and containing 146 stores, located in the west of the capital, with an investment of $50 million.
The company Spectrum, in charge of developing the project, estimated that the Naranjo Mall shopping center will be ready in December 2015. This mall will be 27 thousand square meters of retail space and 1,600 parking spaces.
Over the next few months 17 local fast food and 'casual' restaurants will be opened as well as 35 cafes and 4 supermarkets.
Despite announcements of the closure of several companies in recent months, the commercial sector seems to have not stopped growing, with the coming months seeing the opening of 19 fashion stores, 6 appliance stores, 7 hotels, and 8 office complexes, among others.
A business group in the retail sector has entered the opticians business, opening the first of eight stores which they plan to open throughout the year.
The new trend in the opticians market is financing products through a system similar to that offered in white good stores. Under this scheme the brand Gollo Ópticas, by the Unicomer Group, will soon open 8 sales outlets reporting an investment of about $100,000 for each one.
In the same month that two fast food franchises closed operations, another chain has announced that over the next 18 months it will be investing $4 million in opening three new stores.
At the moment the fast food chain Johnny Rockets operates in three locations, in which it has invested about $2 million. It is expected that in the coming months there will be three new facilities to be located in City Mall in Alajuela, Escazú Village and Terrazas de Lindora, with an investment of 4 million.
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.
The conflict between the Salvadoran government and the Italian company Enel has deteriorated the business climate and the country's image as an investment destination.
"The unwillingness of the government to enforce arbitration awards," breach of these and "the politicization of the conflict Between El Salvador and the investor" are some factors that the Salvadoran Foundation for Economic and Social Development (Fusades) identifies as a major cause of the loss of confidence of foreign investors in El Salvador.
A meeting of Honduran businesses has been organized for February 12 which aims to present a portfolio of private investment projects.
This meeting entitled 'Investing in Honduras in 2015' aims to bring together various sectoral ministers with the business community in order to pool projects to be developed during the year and publicize the work plans.
Ruled out by the previous government of Panama, the proposal to build a cruise terminal in Amador has once again been brought to light at the hands of a group of private investors.
Previously, former officials of the Tourism Authority of Panama (ATP) had shown that the cost of dredging needed to maintain the necessary draft was very high, but recently a group of businessmen have indicated that funds for the project could be provided mainly by the private sector.
The Law on Legal Stability for Investments has been approved, which aims to improve confidence in the country preventing changes to incentive schemes granted to foreign companies.
From a statement issued by the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador:
Legislative Plenary approves Legal Stability Law for Investment
This is another important step forward in the legislative endeavor, as with this approval legal stability is granted to entrepreneurs who decide to invest in the country. Using this tool, legislators will be able to give domestic and foreign businessmen, certainty that, once their investment project is approved, no one can change the rules of the game.
Keeping limits on private power generation blocks investments and removes the possibility of reducing prices and improving competitiveness.
According to the Costa Rican government authorities, the country's electricity demand is covered until 2019, an argument which has been used to rule out the draft Contingency Power Act, which proposed increasing private power generation in the country.
The Solis administration is opposed to the Power Contingency Act which would enable private power generation and force the state run power company to compete.
Arguing that there is no need for it because 'demand is being met," the executive branch is opposing the Contingency Power Act because" ... it would be contrary to the model of energy development in the country, contrary to what has been discussed in the discussion tables on energy."
Employers in the region are complaining about a lack of long-term development policies, and are asking for Government transparency, effectiveness and legal certainty, so that they can continue investing in the region.
During a meeting between businessmen and government called 'Expanding opportunities: promoting the private sector and job creation', entrepreneurs from different sectors shared their concerns and views on the investment climate in the region.
Industrialists are pointing to political and legal uncertainty, high crime rates, corruption, bureaucracy and red tape as the main factors that are keeping away investors.
According to the Salvadoran Association of Industrialists (ASI), the government is not providing the right conditions in the country for the economy to grow, but, on the contrary has adopted tax reforms, which do not contribute its reactivation.