By Brendan Scanland
WASHINGTON, D.C. — For ten years, the U.S. Department of Commerce has hosted the SelectUSA Investment Summit. The 2024 Investment Summit recently wrapped up just outside the nation’s capital.
Business leaders and economic development organizations from Puerto Rico attended this year with the goal of bringing more investors and companies to the island.
“I feel Puerto Rico is a hidden gem that oftentimes people are not aware about. When people think Puerto Rico, they think tourism and they think beaches, astronomy and golf. And that’s all true, and it’s absolutely fabulous, but tourism only represents 7% of the Puerto Rican economy,” said Ella Woger-Nieves, CEO of Invest Puerto Rico (InvestPR).
As the official entity dedicated to promoting the island as a competitive market, it’s the goal of Invest Puerto Rico to bring new business and capital investment to the island. Each year InvestPR attends the summit to let businesses and investors know the island is more than just a popular vacation destination.
“We are an economy based on manufacturing and knowledge services,” said Woger-Nieves.
According to SelectUSA, the Investment Summit is the highest-profile event in the United States to facilitate business investment by connecting thousands of investors, companies and economic development organizations to make deals happen.
The summit gives Woger-Nieves and her team the opportunity to highlight all the benefits of doing business in Puerto Rico.
“First and foremost, doing business in Puerto Rico is doing business in the U.S. with the same legal, regulatory and banking regulations that apply in the United States. And I’d argue that we probably have some of the most, if not the most, competitive tax incentives, offering companies very, very substantial benefits,” said Woger-Nieves.
The Commerce Department works with U.S. embassies across the globe to bring companies interested in the U.S. market to the annual event.
“It provides an amazing platform to communicate the value proposition of Puerto Rico to all the companies from abroad that are looking to expand their operations into the U.S.,” said Woger-Nieves. “There is no better place to do it than in Puerto Rico.”
Woger-Nieves says Puerto Rico is an investment destination. She hopes to spread that message and help inject economic opportunity to the island.
“It’s not what’s next. It’s where. And that ‘where’ is Puerto Rico,” said Woger-Nieves.
At the Investment Summit, InvestPR announced the expansion of Prodapt, a global IT company based in India, into Puerto Rico. According to InvestPR, Prodapt will establish a network engineering center in San Juan, which is set to initially create 200 full-time engineering jobs.