FIAS » Regions » Latin America & the Caribbean

Latin America & the Caribbean

Economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean showed a 5.7 percent growth rate in 2007, the best four-year growth trend since the 1970s. Investors pushed FDI to $106 billion, surpassing the previous record of $89 billion set in 1999, and thus, leading FDI inflows worldwide with annual growth of 46 percent compared to an average global rate of 36 percent.

FIAS' work in Latin America and the Caribbean focuses on Investment Policy and Promotion, Doing Business Reform Advisory, Subnational Doing Business, and Trade Logistics.

Examples of our work

FIAS has been working to create cross-border synergies to promote international investment in tourism across the region. FIAS has assisted the governments of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua in launching the Central America Tourism and Hotel Investment Exchange (CATHIE), a regional tourism investment conference aimed at improving international and regional hotel and tourism development.

In Honduras, FIAS provided support to the Foundation for Investment and Development of Exports in attracting international investors to Honduras’ tourism and manufacturing sector. The foundation completed five promotional campaigns, which resulted in five visits from prospective investors interested in further researching Honduran sites. FIAS also helped the foundation restructure its operations to maximize advantages offered under the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

In Costa Rica, competitiveness assessments of the telecommunications and rice sectors previously completed by FIAS served as the foundation in guiding policy reforms. The competitiveness assessment in telecommunications is the basis for arguments to be presented to the national legislature by the Costa Rican Competition Committee as it works to liberalize the sector.

FIAS also focuses on addressing obstacles to investment within specific sectors. In Peru, FIAS worked with the National Competitiveness Council and the Ministry of Trade to increase the competitiveness of the cotton, textile, and apparel industries. FIAS conducted a value chain analysis that outlined the main competitive weaknesses and opportunities and addressed ways to improve performance based on industry-led, voluntary improvements in labor standards. The value chain analysis highlighted the difficulties in trading across borders. Based on these findings, FIAS has joined an initiative to address these issues. FIAS also completed a regulatory reform review to improve the investment climate in five pilot regions. The study reviewed the legal and regulatory framework of the dominant sectors in each project region: Arequipa (garments/textile), Cusco (tourism), Ica (agribusiness), Junín (aquaculture), and Loreto (wood processing). Results from the study are being used by IFC to develop an action plan for addressing regional regulatory constraints within Peru's business climate and streamlining legal and regulatory procedures in agribusiness and tourism.

Using the sub-national Doing Business ratings and other innovative products, FIAS worked to identify administrative bottlenecks at national and local levels of government and to unleash competition to create a better business environment among different regions of Mexico and Brazil, as well as countries in the Caribbean. FIAS focuses on making sure that the reform energy generated by the Doing Business indicators leads to actual reforms.
The Doing Business in Colombia report, which covers 13 cities, was introduced at a January 2008 event in Colombia chaired by President Alvaro Uribe. Subsequently, a second study covering 27 regions of the country was requested.

Two years after FIAS assisted the municipal government of Bogotá and the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce in completing the successful launch of Invest in Bogotá, now one of Latin America’s most active subnational investment promotion agencies, FIAS helped Invest in Bogotá complete five outreach campaigns targeting international investors in four industries: call centers, medical devices, automobile parts, and pharmaceuticals. As a result, the pipeline of potential investment projects grew at a rate of 10 percent per month, and a total of $140 million in foreign investment commitments in hotels, call centers, and manufacturing were facilitated.

FIAS is also providing throughout the region technical assistance on reforms related to the areas covered by the Doing Business Report. Doing Business Reform Advisory unit is working for a second year in Colombia, as well as launching reform work in several LAC countries which have requested reform assistance in recent months: Honduras, Guatemala, OECS member states (Grenada, Dominica, St. Lucia and St. Kitts and Nevis), Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Mexico.

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