Foreign Investment Law
(Decree 9-98)
Features
The State of Guatemala encourages and promotes foreign investment. The foreign investor and its investment are mainly regulated by the provisions of this law. If the foreign investment is made in a sector of the national economy in which there is a special law, the foreign investor must also observe the precepts of the same. Likewise, the foreign investor is subject to all the legal precepts of general observance in the territory of the Republic of Guatemala, and shall enjoy the same rights and the means to exercise them that the laws grant to Guatemalan investors.
Participation
The foreign investor may participate in the development of any lawful economic activity in the country, as well as in any proportion in the capital stock of profit-making companies organized in accordance with Guatemalan legislation.
Access to foreign currency
The foreign investor enjoys free access to the purchase and sale of available foreign currency and to the free convertibility of currency, in accordance with the provisions of special laws on foreign exchange matters and on equal terms with the national investor. Among others, the foreign investor may freely carry out:
(a) Transfers abroad related to its invested capital, or by dissolution and liquidation or voluntary sale of the foreign investment;
b) The remittance of any profit or gain generated in the national territory;
c) The payment and remittance of dividends, debts contracted abroad and the interest accrued thereon, royalties, rents and technical assistance;
d) Payments derived from indemnification for expropriation.