Page "Economy of Paraguay" Paragraph 24

The government's role in promoting industry increased in the postwar era, and in 1955 the Stroessner government undertook the country's first industrial census.

Over the next twenty years, the government enacted a number of industrial incentive measures, the most important of which was Law 550.

Law 550 promoted exportoriented industries or those that would save foreign exchange.

It also provided liberal fiscal incentives for companies to develop specific areas of the country, especially the departments of Alto Paraguay, Nueva Asunción, Chaco, and Boquerón.

Incentives for business were related mostly to import-duty exemptions, but they included a variety of tax breaks and placed no restrictions on foreign ownership.

Approximately one-fourth of all new manufacturing investment from 1975 to 1985 was registered under Law 550.

Most foreign investments originated from Brazil, West Germany, the United States, Portugal, and Argentina in that order of importance.

The dynamic processes of agricultural colonization and hydroelectric development, combined with such attractive industrial incentives, caused manufacturing to grow at an unprecedented rate in the late 1970s and early 1980s.