The speed of change in business today is forcing leading companies in the contact center and outsourcing market to seek out strategic advantages in countries they might have not considered just a few years ago. In this competitive race, companies need to think creatively in order to build lasting advantages.

Nicaragua offers unique strategic advantages by virtue of its low-cost, but surprisingly skilled and customer-oriented labor force, wide availability of bilingual professionals (English and Spanish), a neutral Spanish accent, generous tax and other government incentives, and a modern and cost-effective telecommunications infrastructure.

We invite you to think creatively and explore the many opportunities Nicaragua offers off-shore services operations.

Nicaragua offers a large pool of well educated people who are proficient in English. In 2004, ProNicaragua launched the nicasearch.com database to identify English proficiency among individuals with good computer skills. The nicasearch.com database includes over 4,000 bilingual professionals from the most important cities in the country, and can be made available to qualified investors.  Based on this study, ProNicaragua estimates that approximately 10% of the country's working population is bilingual.
 
In the current educational system, there are:

• 1 English-language university accredited in the US
• 3 Bilingual university programs
• 5 Bilingual secondary schools

Telecommunications Infrastructure

A private telecommunications market ensures a wide selection of providers and high quality services at competitive market.

International providers include: Telefonica, America Movil, AMNET, IBW, Alfanumeric, and others.

Competitive Cost Structure and Incentives

One of the many advantages that Nicaragua offers besides the quality of the labor force and its strategic location is its cost structure.

Free Trade Zone Incentives Law

In 1991, the Government of Nicaragua approved a series of laws aimed at supporting the Export Processing Zones. These laws are currently being modified to provide even more benefits to the companies governed by this program. BPO and contact center operations may apply for incentives under the Free Zone Law which offers the following incentives:

• Total tax exemption on income and property taxes
• Total exemption on municipal taxes
• Total exemption on taxes for machinery, equipment and raw material, and on transport and support services for the Free Trade Zones
• Total tax exemption on value added tax
• All permits can be obtained in less than six week