28/03/2024
Guatemala debe fortalecer instituciones

Guatemala must strengthen institutions

The Foundation for Development (FUNDESA), presented the results of the Index of Sustainable Development (IDS) 2022. According to the results, one of the country’s outstanding issues is to strengthen institutions.

Editorial Perspective

Guatemala ranks 71st out of 94 countries in the Sustainable Development Index (SDI) 2022. “It obtained an overall score of 47.20 out of 100, ranking 15th out of 18 countries evaluated at the Latin American level,” explained Jorge Benavides, a researcher at the Guatemalan Development Foundation (Fundesa).The IDS presents a value of the level of development that a society has, focusing on the aspects that are relevant to the different groups of the population.”These components make it possible to assess a country’s capacity to maintain the level of development achieved over time; that is, the ability to preserve the conditions that allow the population to increase their levels of development without going backwards,” Benavides clarified.

Challenges for Guatemala

According to the analysis of Reduction of Vulnerabilities “Guatemala had a setback when it became evident that there are still great challenges in the management of water and in the housing conditions of the population, as well as in the conservation of natural resources“, according to the financing Felipe Antonio Bosch Gutiérrez. One of the fundamental issues is the strengthening of the Institutions, which has been consistently declining since 2009, with pending challenges being the reform of the Electoral and Political Parties Law, the professionalization of the civil service, the solidity and autonomy of the Comptroller General of Accounts, and a judicial career that guarantees the independence of prosecutors, judges and magistrates.Guatemala must strengthen institutionsAccording to Juan Carlos Zapata, Director of Fundesa, Guatemala must generate a set of clear and transparent rules that guarantee certainty and legal certainty for investment.“It is the great pending task in terms of institutional strengthening, which allows us to live in a free market economy with the rule of law,” Zapata said.Additionally, a follow-up record is kept to 52 identified projects where there is even a traffic light of progress that the Ministry of Communications is promoting to have a better monitoring in the short and medium term of the progress of the projects and to eliminate the bottlenecks that may arise.This type of initiative, together with the upcoming signing of an inter-institutional agreement in the axis of Legal Certainty of Guatemala Does not Stop to digitize several institutions, as part of the process of implementing the Anti-Procedure Law, is helping to position Guatemala to take advantage of nearshoring, attract more companies and generate more jobs for the country.If we add to this the excellent progress of the tax authorities of having achieved that the tax refund is accelerated, ending the dam of accumulated files that was had, thanks to the joint effort of the SAT, hand in hand with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy and other organizations, undoubtedly adds to the improvements in the business climate.