Paraguay's Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MIC) is implementing a new strategy to ensure industrial policies continue beyond government changes. To prevent sectoral agendas from being "reset" with each new administration, the ministry has created the Regional Business Advisory Council, which incorporates input from productive sectors in the country's interior.
Deputy Minister of Commerce Alberto Sborovsky explained that the goal is to develop a joint work agenda that will be presented to the next minister, requesting continuity for ongoing initiatives. This mechanism aims to build long-term public policies and strengthen more solid institutional transitions.
Simultaneously, the MIC presented the main outlines of its industrial policy to the Paraguayan Advertisers Chamber (CAP), focusing on territorial planning, development of productive hubs, and creating conditions to facilitate new investments. The presentation was led by Minister Marco Riquelme and Deputy Minister of Industry Javier Viveros.
One central pillar is establishing industrial territories with defined and guaranteed land use, providing greater predictability for companies and facilitating infrastructure and service planning. The strategy aims to reorganize the national territory from an industrial perspective, identifying zones with potential for specific sectors and promoting the formation of specialized regional clusters.
As concrete examples, Minister Riquelme cited the development of a textile cluster in Caaguazú, where efforts focus on strengthening young people's capabilities to facilitate their employment, and consolidating Caazapá as a timber industry hub, considering the availability of raw materials and projected investments.
The strategy also envisions greater coordination between industrial development and human capital formation in each territory, ensuring that locally developed technical capabilities meet the demands of productive sectors.
As part of this initiative, the MIC is developing a technological platform that will visualize conditions and capabilities across various Paraguayan municipalities. The tool, whose first version will launch in August, will provide territorial and productive information to guide investors in identifying the most suitable areas for their projects.
The platform will evolve to include data on energy availability, infrastructure, access routes, and zones designated for industrial activities through interconnection with other public institutions. The objective is to strengthen industrial planning and facilitate connections between each territory's capabilities and investors' needs.