paraguay
investment opportunities in sectors such as textiles, footwear,
leather, furniture equipment and the automotive industry.
Other sectors that off er opportunities are hotels, tourism,
public and private services and barge shipyards (OECEA,
2018).
In addition to its macroeconomic stability, Paraguay has a
legal framework aimed at attracting foreign investment. For
example, Law 60/90 establishes the regime of fi scal incentives
for the investment of national and foreign capital. The Maquila
Law allows foreign companies to settle in Paraguay as maquila
industries, introducing raw materials with a series of fi scal and
tax incentives to assemble and manufacture products using
national labor, to fi nally re-export them. This regime has
already allowed Paraguay to start attracting foreign investment
for the establishment of maquiladoras, both in the textile sector
and in the development of car components.
We should also mention the tax advantages in the
automotive sector, the Law 5.542 guarantee for investments
and existing free zones. Indeed, the country also has the third
largest free trade zone in the world: Ciudad del Este, after
Miami and Hong Kong.
Moreover, there are no restrictions on the purchase of
real estate and land by foreigners, there is no impediment
or limitation to the departure of capital from the country,
except when the amount exceeds $10,000, for prevention of
money laundering, or there is no type of exchange control
(OECEA, 2018).
Companies that want to invest in Paraguay will fi nd
comparatively low operating costs, although they have
increased in recent years, especially the rental of offi ces and
industrial buildings; abundant energy and labor; moderate
24 • PARAGUAY 2019
costs of electricity, water services or local communications
(OECEA, 2018).
It should be taken into account that Paraguay is a founding
member of MERCOSUR, together with Argentina, Brazil, and
Paraguay. The agreement has as its most important advantages
the free circulation of goods, services and productive factors
among the countries, the adoption of an external tariff and a
standard commercial policy, the free distribution of citizens,