New survey to foreign investors: a commitment to improve business climate and aftercare services

Promoted by Uruguay XXI, last Thursday, July 26, the second edition of the Survey to Foreign Investors, carried out by Equipos Consultores, was launched. The process, which will take three months, has already begun with the first sending of the questionnaire to a group of companies.

With this new measurement, the institute for promotion of investments, exports and country image, aims to know more about the reasons that made these companies choose Uruguay as destination for their investments, how they evaluate the establishment process in the country, their needs and the challenges they face in the local territory. The final task will be to obtain tools to improve business climate and aftercare services.

The opening event included oral presentations given by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Pablo Ferreri, and the Manager of Competitive Intelligence of Uruguay XXI, Mariana Ferreira.

"Productive investment, both of goods and services, is a fundamental factor for the growth of the economy. This survey is necessary to achieve the best conditions that may promote this type of investment and allows us to know the needs and expectations of entrepreneurs, being a relevant input for the design of public policies", said Pablo Ferreri.

He added that "the survey will allow us to detect what opportunities investors see, but also the problems, restrictions or lack of incentives that the country raises and, as a result, project how they can be improved, corrected or modified to continue having a cycle of economic growth associated with the generation of quality career opportunities for Uruguayans".

In 2015, the results of the survey answered by managers of some 160 companies revealed a high level of satisfaction of foreign companies with the setting up process in the country.

"Now that we have a broader universe of companies, we aim to have a higher response rate and more information quality of these companies," assured the manager of Competitive Intelligence of Uruguay XXI, Mariana Ferre

The content of the consultation, which takes about ten minutes to complete, will be very similar to those of the last edition, in order to make comparisons with the indicators. On this occasion, you will also add other questions to evaluate, for example, the services provided by Uruguay XXI, as well as specific queries about aftercare service needs.

"Fundamentally, it is about having an updated input that allows us to take measures to continuously improve the investment climate in Uruguay. Our institute is the only entity that has this registry of foreign companies in the country, so it is an exclusive and essential survey for the work of Uruguay XXI", said Ferreira.

The Competitive Intelligence manager of Uruguay XXI stated that the first survey already meant "a great value", because it provided superlative information on the perception of the business climate and the reasons why companies choose Uruguay as the epicenter of their business in the region. Indeed, that consultation suggested that the satisfaction level on the establishment process in Uruguay was 84%, while the satisfaction on the business climate was 76%.

"The result was favorable, but these surveys show interesting results regardless of the positiveness of their data, because they give us tools to work on improving many aspects and also to develop actions as an institute. It is a way to value the service we provide to foreign companies, whether it be in the provision of information, in advice and particularly in enquiring what the most important aftercare services are", she concluded.

To learn about other recent developments on foreign direct investment (FDI) in Uruguay, visit the Quarterly FDI Monitor for June. The report analyzes the data of the Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU) and presents news and trends using different information databases.