Nicaragua: cutting maquiladora costs

Light manufacturing operations may be attracted to Nicaragua, following the implementation this month of simplified procedures for establishing production facilities in a free zone, and for the importation of imputs and exportation of finished goods by free-zone companies.

The new measures were established by the government with recommendations from the National Textile Association (Anitec), which considers that administrative costs could fall by one third.

Apparel production accounts for a majority of the output of Nicaragua’s free zones, which as of last September consisted of 176 operations.

Low-cost labor, together with duty-free and quota-free access to the United States market for qualifying exports, are other benefits of Nicaraguan production.