Guatemala City, Guatemala – On Wednesday, September 27th, HUGE Founders met with the Secretariat of Central American Economic Integration (SIECA) to learn more about the Regional Master Plan for Mobility and Logistics of Central America 2035. The plan was approved by Presidents of all the Central American countries on June 27, 2023. The Secretary General’s presentation focused on key roads, airports, seaports, and economic corridors that link the region both internally and with the US market. They also discussed projects that are open to private investment directly or through public-private partnerships (PPPs) and the SIECA Trade Facilitation project to expedite customs and border procedures in the region.
Participants included Francisco Lima-Mena, General Secretary of SIECA and 8 members of his team, Eduardo Aguirre, Infrastructure Expert at Grupo IDC, Claudia Kattan-Jordan, Vice President for Central America and Panama at Crowley Maritime, Daniel Cottone of Cementos Progreso, Gabriela Roca, Corporate Affairs & Sustainability Director at Corporacion AG, Luis Enrique Collia, Project Manager at NUMA City Industrial Park and Greg Huger, ThinkHUGE Executive Director.
The HUGE (Honduras, USA, Guatemala, and El Salvador) Business and Investment Council is a nonprofit business association 501(c)(6) established by private sector leaders in the Central American Northern Triangle and the United States. The goal of HUGE is to facilitate at least $10 billion in investments yielding 2 million new jobs between Honduras, the United States, Guatemala, and El Salvador over a period of five years. HUGE Founders and Sponsors intend to achieve this through key regional infrastructure investments and by seizing nearshoring opportunities to bring manufacturing services closer to home markets in the Americas.
The Central American Economic Integration Secretariat (SIECA) is responsible for promoting efforts to gradually achieve the economic union of El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panamá. The Secretariat promotes economic and sustainable development, aiming for the transformation and modernization of its structures, the rise of its competitiveness and the insertion of Central America in the world´s economy.
SIECA is conducting an analysis on the projects of strategic interest to ThinkHUGE presented in the Master Plan, including the Puerto Barrios-Puerto Cortes corridor, the Dry Canal connecting Honduras and El Salvador, and others that will create a stronger base for international commerce on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala.
SIECA’s General Secretary, Francisco Lima-Mena will participate as a speaker in the HUGE Annual Meeting in Washington DC on October 18th to present and discuss the strategic focus of his plan, as well as the opportunity for governments, the private sector, and international organizations to work together to create the speed-to-market logistics and competitive infrastructure needed for success in nearshoring. HUGE will look for opportunities to invest in infrastructure emerging from this cooperation between SIECA, the Northern Triangle governments and the private sector.
To learn more about the HUGE Business and Investment Council, please visit our website at www.think-huge.org.