By: José Ayala, Sectoral Specialist of Forestry Industries and Floriculture of REDIEX Paraguay
The development of the forestry industry in the country is expected to attract investments of over USD 15 billion, generating 100,000 direct jobs. In addition, numerous job opportunities will be created in related activities. This growth will boost the construction of new road and port infrastructure, improvements in communications and transport, and even the possibility of developing railways.
Currently, Paraguay’s forestry sector is in transition, moving from a system based on the exploitation of native forests and industrialization of extracted raw materials, with primary transformation products and few markets with low quality requirements, to a scenario of high economic, environmental and social impact.
This new scenario will require competitiveness. Therefore, the area of forest plantations must be expanded at ambitious rates, the existing industries in the country must be improved by incorporating technologies, and foreign direct investment must be attracted throughout the sector’s production chain. This will allow the installation of large forest industries, larger-scale plantations and the creation of adequate infrastructure, which will ultimately position the forestry sector as an important component of the national economy due to its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
With all this, forest development will boost local and national economies, generating employment for our compatriots. This progress can be achieved by fulfilling Paraguay’s international commitments to achieve ecosystem resilience and sustainability.
In the broad context indicated, the table of the value chain of the forestry industry takes on great importance, because it will be the instance of dialogue, coordination and articulation of actions between the key sectoral actors, both public and private, in accordance with the strategic importance of the forestry sector, which will guide and order the desired forestry development.
The good performance of institutional, inter-institutional and public-private integration tasks, within the framework of the forestry industry value chain table, will be reflected in the medium term, in the exponential increase of the sector’s contribution to the national economy.
During the first days of July, there was a first meeting between the parties, in accordance with the established planning, and to date there is a proposal for a competitiveness matrix with new components or strategic axes that will be worked on specifically in the so-called “committees”, made up of key actors according to areas of competence, legal powers, or interest.
In the development of this space, Paraguay has an enormous opportunity to generate wealth for national well-being.
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2024-07-20 05:05:59
