If you are enthusiastic about doing business in Latin America and considering which country to launch in, there are a ton of good reasons to choose Uruguay.
Situated in the southeast of South America, Uruguay is known as a strong and prosperous country with meager levels of corruption, which gives a high quality of life to most of its residents.
Uruguay likewise benefits from the fact that it is bordered by Brazil and Argentina, respectively the largest and third-largest economies in Latin America by GDP, helping to make the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo a center for trade.
Reasons to Invest in Uruguay
Strong social and political stability
The trade and investment regime of Uruguay is open, with few border regulations and limited use of non-tariff measures. The primary commercial strategy of Uruguay is to keep liberalizing trade and investment. Being a small and open economy, Uruguay requires markets free of restrictions on trade, especially in the agricultural sector, which generates most of its exports. In the investment area, Uruguay is industriously looking to improve its business sector to keep on bringing foreign investment, and through that, broaden its economic growth and employment.
Macroeconomic soundness
Uruguayan economy has accomplished the longest period of growth ever, by acquiring 12 years of consecutive growth of its GDP. This development was accompanied by a growth of the GDP per capita, which grew from US$ 10,000 in 2005 to virtually US$ 17,000 in 2014. This has enabled Uruguay’s economy to stand out as retaining the highest GDP per capita in Latin America.
Uruguay has an Investment Grade status, which shows confidence in the country’s institutional framework and the conduction of its financial system.
Leader in technology
Uruguay has the biggest Internet penetration and biggest download speed in the nation.
Uruguay is a developing financial technology hub, with the country’s initial startup to be estimated at over US $1 billion being a fintech. Fintech is just one subset of the tech industry in which Uruguay is making a name for itself, with firms in property technology and agricultural technology also prominently rising.
Being so advanced, Uruguay boasts a wealth of available talent in a wide range of disciplines, not only restricted to traditional professional services such as law and accounting but developing skilled industries such as tech.
Access to a market with great potential
Uruguay is a member of MERCOSUR, a free trade zone between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela, and Uruguay.
Uruguay is established as a regional logistics hub, with an amazing location as regards the richest cities in the region. The free zone, free port and airport, and bonded warehouses regulations give an excellent framework for the setting up of distribution centers to supply goods to said cities.
Attractive schemes for the investor
In Uruguay, foreign investors are given the same incentives as local investors and there is no tax bias in favor of any of them. No prior approval or registration is imposed to operate and there are no barriers to transferring capital or profits from foreign investments.
Automatic benefits that also apply to all investors, in general, include exemption of wealth tax and VAT.
Modern Infrastructure
Uruguay has a top-class port infrastructure in Montevideo which is connected to the most dense network of roads across the continent with outstanding contact with neighboring countries. It similarly has a modern airport, nominated as one of the best airports in the world. Uruguayan ports and airports can perform under the free port and free airport scheme, whereby logistics procedures can be conducted tax-free.
Ease of doing business with Uruguay
Uruguay works on procuring a reasonable business climate on an ongoing basis and the best structures for investors. Therefore, Uruguay has facilitated a number of reforms to materially improve efficiency and speed up state processes including, but not restricted to, electronic invoicing, electronic signature, and worldwide trade one-stop-shop.
Strategic location
Capital Montevideo provides simple access to major cities in neighboring Argentina and Brazil. Notably, an estimated 70% of Brazil’s GDP, 60% of Argentina’s GDP, and 56% of Chile’s GDP are yielded in regions close to Uruguay.
Additionally, cargo shipping leaving Montevideo has susceptible access to Africa and Europe, as well as the rest of the Americas, helping it to be one of the most significant ports in the region in terms of container throughput.
Talent availability
Human Resources in Uruguay are highly competitive due to a variety of factors, including high quality of fundamental, technical, and university training, flexibility and the ease of Uruguayan employees to adapt to new generation processes or technologies.
Respect for the environment
Uruguay has a positioning strategy that includes showing consumers that Uruguayan products have been manufactured in the most environmentally friendly way. This shows the country’s great commitment to environmental issues and shows an added value for many consumers.
Life quality in Uruguay
If your goal is to relocate to Latin America as part of your market entry, the especially high quality of life on offer is another essential reason to invest in Uruguay.
The country’s success, strength, relatively low crime, nice weather, vital culinary culture, decent infrastructure and establishments, and the famously friendly disposition of its citizens make it an incredibly pleasant place to live.
Beyond that, the country also has high-quality and reasonable healthcare, while the fact that it doesn’t face any crucial natural disaster threats is also another critical point in its favor.
Contact your Damalion expert today to find out more about how we can assist you in entering and investing in Uruguay.
