Policies Towards Foreign Direct Investment

The Paraguayan government publicly encourages private foreign investment, but U.S. companies often struggle with practices that inhibit or slow their activities.  Paraguay guarantees equal treatment of foreign investors and permits full repatriation of capital and profits. Paraguay has historically maintained the lowest tax burden in the Latin American region, with a 10 percent corporate tax rate and a 10 percent value added tax (VAT) on most goods and services.  Despite these policies, U.S. companies continue to have difficulty with investments in Paraguay, including seemingly frivolous legal entanglements taking multiple years to resolve, non-payment and delayed payments from Paraguayan government customers, and opaque permitting processes that slow project execution.

REDIEX provides useful information for foreign investors, including business opportunities in Paraguay, registration requirements, laws, rules, and procedures.

Limits on Foreign Control and Right to Private Ownership and Establishment

Foreign and domestic private entities may establish and own business enterprises.  Foreign businesses are not legally required to be associated with Paraguayan nationals for investment purposes, though this is strongly recommended, on an unofficial basis, by national authorities.

There is no restriction on repatriation of capital and profits.  Private entities may freely establish, acquire, and dispose of business interests.

Under the Investment Incentive Law (60/90) and the maquila program, the government has an approval mechanism for foreign investments that seeks to estimate the proposed investment’s economic impact in areas including employment, incorporation of new technologies, and economic diversification.

Other Investment Policy Reviews

The WTO conducted an Investment Policy Review in 2017.  Please see following website:

https://docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/FE_Search/FE_S_S009-DP.aspx?language=E&CatalogueIdList=240507,87161,40418,27051&CurrentCatalogueIdIndex=0&FullTextHash=&HasEnglishRecord=True&HasFrenchRecord=False&HasSpanishRecord=False  

Business Facilitation

Paraguay has responded to complaints about its traditionally onerous business registration process — previously requiring new businesses to register with a host of government entities one-by-one — by creating a portal in 2007 that provides one-stop service.  The Sistema Unificado de Apertura y Cierre de Empresas – SUACE (www.suace.gov.py  ) — is the government’s single window for registering a company.  The process takes about 35 days.

Outward Investment

There are no restrictions to Paraguayans investing abroad.  The Paraguayan government does not incentivize or promote outward investment.