Asunción, Agencia IP.- Rodrigo Maluff, Deputy Minister of the Investment and Export Network (Rediex), reported that since the beginning of the current Government, around 560 companies have shown interest in investing in the country, representing a 40% increase compared to the same period last year.
«About 560 companies have shown interest in investing in the country since the start of this government period. That is a 40% increase compared to last year,» Maluff stated in an interview with presidential spokeswoman Paula Carro.
In this regard, he explained that in 2024, the number of companies interested in Paraguay doubled, indicating that the Executive’s economic diplomacy yielded significant results.
«It means that in every trip of the president or the ministers, we are dedicating at least 60-65% of the agenda to work meetings with entrepreneurs and associations who want to learn more about this country we are promoting,» he claimed.
Doubling the national economy
He mentioned that Rediex’s main goal is to enable Paraguay to engage in business with the world, connecting the private sector with large companies to develop investments and thus create more jobs.
«We want to boost the economy; We are pushing for something new. We aim to attract investments between 100 and 200 million dollars, which have to do with the ties of trust already existing. The Paraguayans who are succeeding abroad are helping us put together this business agenda, to bring in the new, that is, large and large-scale industries,» he stressed while pointing out that the Government is doing «more than traditional» to get closer to investment grade.
Implementation of electric buses
When asked about the Taiwanese company planning to set up an electric bus factory in Paraguay, creating 2,600 jobs, he said it would be a great achievement and that the agreement had been in the works since August last year.
He noted that Master Bus showed interest in establishing itself in the region to supply electric trucks and buses from Paraguay and the entire region. «This is the concept we have pushed in all these economic diplomacy visits, the concept of this regional hub that aims to create value for the region and the world,» he added.
He mentioned that the recent events in the Republic of China (Taiwan) align with the intention to use Paraguayan energy while generating added value.
On this point, he indicated that Taiwan is a key ally in riding this wave of technological development, which has allowed Paraguay to become the most developed country in South America.
«We visited, inviting the entire value chain to use the available electric energy in Paraguay, using this platform for everything from semiconductors to AI computational calculations, to be done in Paraguay and provided to the world. Because today we have energy, and we want to stimulate the market for energy generation and consumption from Paraguay, the region’s center,» he expressed.
He affirmed that Paraguay wants to take that leap and even lead in technology-related things, as artificial intelligence is gaining more prominence worldwide.
«We are talking about interests in investing in solar, hydro, and wind energy, with more than 8,500 megawatts of investment, totaling around USD 5 billion just in energy generation investments; that’s the interest.»
Renewable energy Law
Regarding this, he said the Executive’s proposed amendment to extend the contract with ANDE to 30 years is to ensure more investor interest.
«This amendment, which the Executive is pushing from ten years to a 30-year energy purchase period from the private sector, will stimulate this because clearly, any investor looking to undertake a project in Paraguay needs the security of 30 years or a substantial period to validate their effort,» he affirmed.
Booming forestry sector
He specified that currently, the forestry sector occupies 204,000 hectares, generating annual export revenues of USD 107 million and 5,000 jobs, along with USD 4 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
«AFD and the World Bank are about to launch a 100-million-dollar fund for the forestry sector, which has historically been significant for us. In 2023, we planted more than 50,000 hectares of reforestation. This year, we will exceed 80,000 hectares per year,» he recounted.
He stated that with this, Paraguay will have 300,000 cultivated hectares. Although these are encouraging figures, there is still much to do.
«Sooner rather than later, the forestry sector will reach about 2 million hectares. We are working hard to make this happen. With 2 million hectares, Paraguay can be a biomass producer like Sweden, which has 9 million cultivated hectares, thanks to the rapid growth of trees in Paraguay,» he said.