Last T
hursday, December 2, HUGE’s Greg Huger and Jesus Canahuati took part in a critical panel discussion during the Dialogo Empreserial: El Gran Reenfoque, an event focused on regional collaboration in the Northern Triangle, organized by leading civil society organizations from the region, including ANEP, FUSADES, FUNDESA, CACIF and COHEP.
HUGE Executive Director, Greg Huger led the panel on Investment Opportunities for the Northern Triangle region, which included panelists such as HUGE’s own Secretary of the Board and Founder Jesus Canahuati, Saana Abouzaid, IFC Regional Manager for Central America, and Maria Eugenia Tabush of Moving Forward @Invest Guatemala.
During this discussion, several notable comments were made regarding the work that has already been done, and that which needs to be done, to spur large-scale investment in the region. Maria Eugenia described the resiliency of the private sector in these countries, and Saana Abouzaid defined the textile and maquila sectors as a “stepping stone” for moving into higher-value industries. Notably, Jesus Canahuati pointed out the historic opportunity the private sector has to take advantage of a post-pandemic world, “The CAFTA countries are the best alternative to capture a huge portion of the manufacturing shift from Asia to service the nearshoring demand in the USA, so it is time to invest responsibly in protecting the environment and providing the best conditions to our collaborators.” Greg Huger closed the panel by illustrating how a win-win-win can be achieved, “Regional alignment offers economies of scale, opportunities to improve infrastructure, and competitive advantages, all of which can permanently benefit the region.”
HUGE represents the first joint effort by private-sector job creators from the three Central American countries and their counterparts from the United States to create massive jobs in these countries, including the United States. HUGE facilitates communication between companies in priority clusters such as the textile and maquila sectors. As part of its mission, the Founders and Sponsors of HUGE are actively bringing together the main actors in the United States and the countries of the Northern Triangle, to achieve the results this panel described.