“A Real Estate, Tourism and Business Overview”

Nicaragua is a beautiful Central American nation, famous for its idyllic beaches, consistent surf, enchanting jungles, soaring volcanoes and friendly people. As the largest country in the Central America region, roughly the size of the state of New York, Nicaragua remains a largely undiscovered jewel with many hidden beaches and properties of great growth and investment potential. Despite the considerable hardship that the country has experienced over the course of its history, Nicaragua has rebounded and now boasts nearly two straight decades of political and economic stability.

The regulatory framework in Nicaragua offers a favorable climate for Foreign Direct Investment, with particularly enticing incentives geared towards investment projects in the vacationing, travel, tourism and real state sectors. In fact, Nicaragua has witnessed double digit growth, annually, in the real-estate and tourism industries in each of the past five years. In addition to Nicaragua‘s natural beauty and attractive investment incentives, the country in consistently ranked as one of the safest locations in Latin America, for both tourists and locals.

The national economic strategy, as outlined in the National Development Plan, identifies the tourism and real estate industries as key sectors that will play a crucial role in the continued economic and social development of Nicaragua. It is projected that by year 2011 that tourism will become the country’s second largest source of income.

Time Zone

The time zone is same as the U.S. Central Standard Time (-6 GMT). There is no daylight savings time.

Administrative Division

Nicaragua’s political/administrative divisions include, 15 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento) and 2 autonomous regions* (regiones autonomistas, singular - región autónoma); Atlántico Norte*, Atlántico Sur*, Boaco, Carazo, Chinandega, Chontales, Estelí, Granada, Jinotega, León, Madriz, Managua, Masaya, Matagalpa, Nueva Segovia, Rio San Juan, Rivas.

Government

Government Type: Republic. Nicaragua has a constitutional democracy with executive, legislative, judicial, and electoral branches of government.

Constitution: In 1995, the executive and legislative branches negotiated a reform of the 1987 Sandinista constitution, to provide for a more even distribution of power among the four branches of government and later enacted a new reform in the year 2000 to increase the role of the Supreme Court and the Comptroller General's Office and to make changes to the electoral laws. It also gave extensive new powers and independence to the legislature--the National Assembly--including permitting the Assembly to override a presidential veto with a simple majority vote and eliminating the president's ability to pocket-veto a bill.

Branches

Executive--president and vice president.

Legislative--National Assembly (unicameral). The president and the members of the unicameral National Assembly are elected to concurrent five-year terms. The National Assembly consists of 92 total deputies (90 elected from party lists drawn at the departmental and national levels, plus the outgoing president and the candidate who finishes second in the Presidential race).

Judicial--Supreme Court; subordinate appeals, district, and local courts; separate labor and administrative tribunals.

Electoral--Supreme Electoral Council, responsible for organizing and holding elections.

Religion

Roman Catholicism is the predominant religious affiliation in Nicaragua while Evangelical Protestant groups have been growing in numbers during recent years. Strong Evangelical and Moravian communities can also be found on the Caribbean coast.

National percentages are: Roman Catholic 72.9%, Evangelical 15.1%, Moravian 1.5%, Episcopal 0.1%, other 1.9%, none 8.5% est.

Nicaragua's National Holidays