With 11 offices in seven countries in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Dominican Republic, legal firm CENTRAL LAW is well-positioned to advise international and regional clients on the finer points of law.
Those countries offer many incentives for foreign investment, and the extensive knowledge of the law in the region that the firm´s lawyers´ have is invaluable to clients.
The legal framework in place is supported by regional laws and free-trade treaties, such as DR-CAFTA and the Association Agreement recently signed between Central America and the European Union. Other agreements such as the TPP and Pacific Alliance are treaties between the US an other countries including Latin America countries of Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile where Honduras, Guatemala and Panama have asked to be part of them.
El Salvador and Honduras have recently proved that the country´s infrastructure can be development by schemes of public-private partnerships due to the enactment of a proper regulation on the matter. Some of the major performed projects in those countries are projects where CENTRAL LAW´s lawyers have participated advising their clients, such as the tender processes of Puerto La Unión (El Salvador) and Puerto Cortés (Honduras); Airport in Río Amarillo and Airport of Toncontín and Palmerola (Honduras); LPG Plant in El Salvador, Hydro Plant El Cajón and Government´s Civic Center in Honduras.
Guatemala, though it has one of the biggest financial centres in the region, has been at the loop in mining and natural resources projects where the firm´s lawyers have been active in advising clients in the licensing for exploration and explotation of minerals and hydrocarbons.
Nicaragua has begun a new stage of economic growth due to an increment in tourism and in renewable energy projects allowing companies to contract directly with distributors. The legal advice of CENTRAL LAW was key to for companies developing the most transcendent projects in the country such as Amaya and Eolo.
As Central America has some of the planet's finest natural reserves, many laws have been passed to protect the environment as well as ensuring economic growth. It has positioned as a leader on environmental issues and aims to be carbon-neutral by 2021. The country has raised its offer of hotels developing new luxury hotels and CENTRAL LAW has been advising prominent chains of hotels and investors from Mexico and Spain in the corporate and hospitality areas.
Panama, a dollar-based economy, is home for many foreign companies that chose to have their headquarters there as they have much more tax incentives there than in their birth countries and for retired people from different parts of the world which chose to leave in a tropical weather and a mixed landscape of beaches and mountains. Projects of public infrastructure such the metro and the Casco Antiguo restoration, the Coastway and the amplification of the Panama Canal are works that raised the not only the international trade but the tourism and the expats beginning a new life working for companies based there.
With its focus on tourism, Dominican Republic has attracted many tourists in recent years and has recently incurred in the development of renewable energy projects. The firm is number one in the Real Estate and Tourism areas advising local and foreign business groups investing in the country.
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