2. Democracy Index
The country Country Ranking
- Uruguay has a strong Uruguay 23
democratic tradition, char-
acterized by political and Costa Rica 27
social stability. Chile 32
- Open, stable and rapidly Brazil 41
developing economy with
Panama 43
reliable and high level
institutions. Argentina 56
- One of Latin America’s Colombia 60
highest GDP growth rates. Source: The Economist, 2008
- Modern and attractive Business costs of crime
and violence
investment regime. Country Ranking
- Remarkable public educa- Uruguay 70
tion and human capital;
Chile 80
first country to implement
One Laptop per Child Panama 89
(OLPC).
Costa Rica 104
- There are no racial or Argentina 107
religious conflicts. Uruguay
is free from epidemics and Brazil 118
natural disasters.
Colombia 126
Source: World Economic Forum’s Global
Competitiveness Report, 2009-2010
Lowest corruption Economic freedom
Country Ranking Country Ranking
Uruguay 25 Chile 10
Chile 25 Uruguay 33
Costa Rica 43 Costa Rica 54
Brazil 75 Colombia 58
Colombia 75 Panama 60
Panama 84 Brazil 113
Argentina 106 Argentina 135
Source: Transparency International, 2009 Source: The Heritage Foundation, 2010
Uruguay is a member of the Mercosur Common Market (Brazil,
Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay), and has signed FTAs with
Mexico and Israel, and a Trade and Investment Framework
Agreement (TIFA) with the USA, among others.
INVESTMENT AND EXPORT
PROMOTION AGENCY
3. Tax and other incentives
- Service exports are exempt from VAT.
- There is a special promotion regime for contact centers:
if the contact center employs more than 150 sta the
company may obtain a 10-year corporate income tax
exemption.
- Companies based in a tax free zone are exempt of ALL
national taxes, and foreign sta may opt not to contrib-
ute to the Uruguayan social security system.
Comparative compensation, net of taxes
and social security contributions
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Chile Colombia Costa Rica Argentina Uruguay
Administrative Finance Manager IT Manager
Source: PWC, 2009. Rebased to Uruguay = 100
Human capital
- The government guarantees free access to education through
University.
- Literacy rate: 98%.
- 4.5% of GDP invested in education.
- 100% of 15-year-olds attending high school have completed at
least 3 years of English and 2 years of computer training.
The digital country
- Uruguay is Latin America’s top technology country according to
Latin Business Chronicle’s Latin Technology Index.
- Uruguay is one of the hot new destinations for outsourcing. Mon-
tevideo, its capital city, is ranked among the top 50 outsourcing
cities according to Global Services/ Tholons (2009).
- 40.0% of Uruguay’s population uses the internet. ( Source: Inter-
national Telecommunications Union (ITU)).
- Spanish is the main language, but English is widely spoken
among the young.
- 58.3% of those using the internet know English (Source: INE –
Uruguay’s Statistics Agency).
4. - Several other languages are spoken. For example, in
Sabre Holdings’ global customer service center, 15
languages are spoken, incluiding, apart from Spanish and
English, other languages such as Portuguese, Italian,
French, German, Swedish and Turkish.
- Cooperation between the government and a private
company: The Knowledge Development Center was devel-
oped by LATU (Uruguay’s Technological Laboratory) and
Tata Consultancy Services. It provides high quality training
for the IT sector in state-of-the-art facilities.
Success stories
“Our newest o ce is the one we opened in Montevideo,
Uruguay in March 2009, responding to the country’s strong
growth and the swiftly-increasing presence of multinational
firms, some of which have chosen Uruguay as the headquar-
ters of their Latin American operations. In addition to serving
Uruguayan clients, Burson-Marsteller Montevideo is expec-
ted to begin to perform a more international role within our
firm, o ering such services as media monitoring and analy-
sis for clients operating in Latin America and elsewhere.
Uruguay’s highly-skilled and cost-competitive executives, as
well as the country’s time zone between Europe’s and North
America’s, will enable us to respond more quickly and cost-
e ectively to client demands.” SANTIAGO HINOJOSA. CEO,
Burson-Marsteller Miami/Latin America.
Human development index Tertiary enrollment
Country Ranking Country Ranking
Chile 44 Argentina 20
Argentina 49 Uruguay 23
Uruguay 50 Chile 38
Costa Rica 54 Panama 48
Panama 60 Colombia 68
Brazil 75 Brazil 73
Colombia 77 Costa Rica 78
Source: UNDP, 2009 Source: World Economic Forum’s Global
Competitiveness Report, 2009-2010
Internet access in schools Broadband penetration
Country Ranking Country Ranking
Chile 38 Uruguay 46
Uruguay 43 Chile 47
Costa Rica 62 Argentina 48
Brazil 64 Brazil 54
Colombia 81 Panama 57
Panama 82 Colombia 61
Argentina 89 Costa Rica 63
Source: World Economic Forum’s Global Source: World Economic Forum’s Global
Competitiveness Report, 2009-2010 Competitiveness Report, 2009-2010
5. Examples of multinational companies
serving the world from Uruguay
Success stories
“We first came to Uruguay in early 2004... to create a world customer
support center. We did an extensive search of many countries all over
the world. Some of the key criteria we looked at were economic stability,
the safety of the location we were in, the legal structure, the ability to
do business in the country. Language diversity was very important for
us. We wanted as a global center, of course to support Spanish and
Portuguese in Latin America, in North America, English, Spanish and
French, and across Europe a number of di erent languages as well. So
language availability was very important to us. Today, our operation
here has become the second largest site after our headquarters.”
YANNIS KARMIS. Vice President Global Customer Support, Sabre
Holdings.
“The reason why we decided on Uruguay is that we found that the
legal system in Uruguay protects the foreign investor, the transpar-
ency of the system is very important to us, the stability of the country
was very important and the attention the government gives to investors
from overseas was key for us to decide to come here. This country provides
an ideal context for the development of the software industry. Uruguay’s
advantages as outsourcing center were crucial in setting up the TATA
Consultancy Services development center.” GABRIEL ROZMAN. Vice
President for Emerging Markets, Tata Consultancy Services.
“In outsourcing, Uruguay has leapt ahead of its neighbors by being
the first to understand what could be done -that in today’s world
having an Indian company led by a Hungarian-Uruguayan servicing
American Banks with Montevidean engineers managed by Indian
technologists who have learned to eat Uruguayan veggie is just the
new normal.” THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN. The New York Times.
6. Invest & Export
About Us
Among other functions, Uruguay XXI
provides support to foreign investors
who are considering investing in our
country as well as those who are already
operating in Uruguay, at no cost.
Our Investor Services
Uruguay XXI is the first point of contact for
foreign investors. Services we provide
include:
- Macroeconomic and industry information.
Uruguay XXI regularly prepares reports on
Uruguay and on various sectors of the
economy.
- Tailored information. We prepare
customized information to answer specific
questions, such as macroeconomic data,
labor market information, tax and legal
aspects, incentive programs for invest-
ments, location and costs.
- Contact with key players. We provide
contacts with government agencies, industry
players, financial institutions, R&D centers
and potential partners, among others.
- Promotion. We promote investment
opportunities at strategic events, busi-
ness missions and round tables.
- Facilitation of foreign investor visits,
Including organization of meetings with
public authorities, suppliers, potential
partners and business chambers.
- Publication of investment opportunities.
On our website, we periodically publish
information on investment projects by
public entities and private companies.
Rincón 518/528 - CP 11000
Phone: (598 2) 915 3838 - Fax: (598 2) 916 3059
Montevideo - Uruguay - info@uruguayxxi.gub.uy
www.uruguayxxi.gub.uy
