Promoting Paraguay in the UK

Out latest blog focuses on one of our Embassy priorities: promoting more trade and investment in Paraguay. Benjamin Hawksbee, a key member of our team who manages the new British Business Centre located in the Embassy, talks about the exciting initiatives he is taking in partnership with a rejuvenated British Paraguayan Chamber of Commerce to deepen bilateral business links. I hope you find it interesting and encourage you to contact Ben if you are interested in pursuing business opportunities in Paraguay.

I am thrilled to be able to introduce the newly established British Business Centre Paraguay, located at the offices of the British Embassy in Asuncion. Its aim is to promote exciting commercial opportunities in Paraguay to the UK and offer a range of services (modern desk space at daily rates, meeting room at hourly rates, market reports, programme planning etc.) to businesses interested in entering the Paraguayan market.

To this end, I travelled with David Martinez, Manager of the Paraguayan British Chamber of Commerce, to London. The first part of our trip consisted of visiting companies and trade associations with whom we had previous contact. Some of these were British companies who already have interests in Paraguay, such as RDN Global who will be hosting an Infrastructure Summit in Asuncion in November. Others were potential leads in important sectors such as retail and education.

On the last day of our trip, we attended the Latin American Investment Forum, hosted by the Latin American Trade and Investment Association (LATIA) in Guildhall. At the Forum we were able to promote mainly forthcoming infrastructure tenders and contracts to British businessmen representing 400 companies and government officials from around the world. We also presented the commercial activities of the Embassy over the past year, including the re-location of the Paraguayan British Chamber of Commerce to the offices of the British Embassy in Asuncion.

It was also an opportunity for us to see where Paraguay stands in the eyes of investors and companies. It was encouraging to find that Paraguay is beginning to be seen as “one of the most interesting new markets in Latin America”.

I would like to invite all British companies interested in investing in the Paraguayan market to contact us for any support they might need.