Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) grew by 64 percent in 2008, reaching a historic high of US$626.1 million. According to a report published by Latin Business Chronicle, Nicaragua ranked 3rd in Latin America when comparing each country´s FDI –to-GDP ratio. This outstanding result also reflects the existence of a climate of security and stability, supported by an appropriate legal framework, and the signing of bilateral investment promotion and protection agreements. The fact that the largest amounts of FDI goes into the free zones, telecommunications, energy, tourism, services and agribusiness sectors, reflects the economy’s openness to FDI in all economic sectors.

Nicaragua´s economic performance has shown a sustained growth and significan...

Education:
Being education one of the pillars of the National Human Development, the government declared elementary school and high school a gratuitous and mandatory service for all children of six years of age and over.

In August 2009, when the country reduced its illiteracy rate down to 3.56%, the UNESCO certified and declared Nicaragua illiteracy-free, under the international standard minimum rate of 5%.

There are 48 universities, three of which are bilingual (one is fully accredited by the US), 113 technical institutes, and five bilingual high schools. In 2008, these universities injected approximately 19,000 professionals into the labor market. Nicaragua continues producing
experts in international business management from...

Roads
• Nicaragua´s National Road Network consists of 21,976 km.
• Nicaragua´s Pan-American Road consists of 381.63 Km.

Telecommunications

The telecommunications infrastructure in Nicaragua went from being one of the least developed in Central America and the Caribbean to become one of the most modern in Latin America.
Nicaragua offers 4,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables equipped with Internet Protocol (IP) /Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) and Next Generation Networking (NGN), which allows convergence of voice, data and video.
The country implemented third generation (3.5G) wireless capabilities which run over a standard telecommunications platform for multimedia broadband (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Sy...

Free Zones

Free Trade Zones offer a special customs regime to companies located within these export-processing zones and are under the tutelage of the Customs Administration; these can be located anywhere on the national territory. Companies are exonerated of most local taxes, receive important benefits, and can sell up to 40 percent in the local market. For fiscal purposes, Free Zones are considered outside the national territory, hence, raw material or merchandise required by companies operating under the Free Zone regime are imported free of taxes and tariffs.


THERE ARE TWO FREE ZONE CATEGORIES:

1) Free Zones Tenants. Tenants are authorized by the Free Zone Commission to operate inside a zone and must be registered as...

Nicaragua has made a priority of strengthening its investment climate in an effort to continue attracting high-quality foreign direct investments. The main legislation that governs foreign investment consists of Law No. 344 for the Promotion of Foreign Investments, as well as other sector-specific laws that provide incentives for investment. The main incentives for investments are:

• Total currency conversion

• Freedom to repatriate all capital and profits, dividends or earnings generated in the national territory, after paying pertinent taxes

• No need for minimum or maximum investment amounts

• 100% international ownership permitted; there is no discrimination against foreign investors, whether it be on total ownership of ...

The Nicaraguan Constitution guarantees equal treatment to both foreign and domestic investment. The Constitution guarantees the right of private property, and prohibits government confiscations.

According to the Constitution, the State must protect, foster and promote economic investment with social responsibility, as well as guarantee both economic and social democracy.

The State is the guarantor of free trade. Therefore, Nicaragua offers attractive investment incentives such as the total conversion of currency and the freedom to repatriate all capital and profits. A Law that reinforces the repatriation is the Foreign Investment Promotion Law (Law 344).



The purpose of this law is to attract new foreign investment to Nicaragu...