31st May 2013
Guatemala: Open for Business
This is a guest blog by our Prosperity Officer, Héctor José
Guatemala is currently hosting the Guatemala Investment Summit (GIS), and we had the pleasure of attending its inauguration yesterday. We were in good company! Guatemala’s President, Otto Perez Molina, Vice President, Roxana Baldetti, Minister of Foreign Affairs Fernando Carrera, several members of the Cabinet, and the private sector leaders, were among those to welcome the delegations of business people from 26 different countries.
The Summit organizers want to take advantage of the positive business climate that exists in Guatemala, recognized by international qualification agencies, and the various economic, tax and regulatory reforms implemented by the current government. As a result Guatemala has been placed as the 2nd most economic reformist country in Latin America.
With a clear objective of making Guatemala the regional hub of foreign direct investment (FDI), and the business centre in the Mesoamerica region (from south Mexico to Colombia), the GIS is a joint effort aiming to attract $11,000M of new investment to the country.
The GIS was promoted internationally to strengthen Guatemala’s position as the 5th most open economy in the region for FDI. And to bring global attention to the country – currently ranked 93 in the World Bank’s 2012 Doing Business Report; as a suitable, open and stable destination for FDI.
The Guatemalan Chamber of Industry is leading the initiative, with full support from the private sector and the Guatemalan government with Ministry of Economy and its investment promotion agency – Invest in Guatemala – playing a key role supporting the event.
Over 200 businessmen are attending the event. 100 are international and domestic investors, who came to learn about the business climate and tangible investment opportunities in Guatemala.
10 of these are representatives of UK companies from their regional representatives in Latin America. They are interested in different sectors: energy, financial services, security, infrastructure/construction, and corporate hospitality services. And they are at different stages of doing business in Guatemala: some, like CSC and JCB, are already operate here, but want to expand their businesses; some others are in the process of being authorized licenses to start operations; and some are just here to learn all that Guatemala has to offer.
There is plenty. And we’re here to help them.