NEW YORK CITY – On Friday, March 3, Dr. Juan José Daboub, President of the HUGE (Honduras, USA, Guatemala, El Salvador) Business and Investment Council delivered closing remarks at the Womble Bond Dickinson LATAM Summit 2023 in New York City. Dr. Daboub commented on Latin America’s influence on US economic development, specifically the importance of current nearshoring opportunities within the Northern Triangle region of Central America and the United States.
The HUGE Business and Investment Council is a nonprofit business association 501(c)(6) established in Washington, D.C. by private sector leaders from Honduras, the USA, Guatemala, and El Salvador. It represents the first private sector-led regional effort that focuses on bringing together business leaders throughout the region to facilitate investment and massive job creation in all four countries. Since the organization’s December 2021 inception, HUGE Founders have generated $4.34 billion in new investment opportunities, creating 128,00 new direct and indirect jobs.
“Today the United States imports about $500 billion from China. 60% of that is machinery, mechanical appliances, furniture, toys, sports equipment, and more. The Northern Triangle countries of Central America could take over a share of these market opportunities, given that they have the manufacturing and logistic capabilities, a free trade agreement, and competitive labor. HUGE is working on removing obstacles to investment, including in infrastructure, financing, and public policy matters, to develop a more prosperous region,” said Dr. Juan José Daboub during his remarks.
Other notable speakers included José Manuel Restrepo Abondano, President of Universidad EIA and Former Minister of Finance and Minister of Trade, Industry and Tourism of Colombia, Salvador Villanueva, Vice President at Goldman Sachs, Alice Decker Burke of the US International Development Finance Corporation, Rosalia Martinez Rial, Vice President of BlackRock, as well as others from Womble Bond Dickinson, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, CAF – banco de desarrollo de América Latina, McKinsey & Company, Palantir Technologies, OneTrust, Esquipulas Foundation for Peace, Democracy, Development and Integration, Renaissance Evolution, Petroquimica Comodoro Rivadavia, Barrick Gold Corp, Neste, Expro and SABIC.
“Latin America is a resource rich region that is (generally) at peace which presents a great opportunity for investment given the conflicts and supply chain issues in other parts of the world”, said a representative from Womble Bond Dickinson at Friday’s event.