Gabriela Cibils wants to turn Paraguay into the Silicon Valley of South America.
She grew up in a country that wasn’t very focused on technology, though both her parents did work in that field. After studying computing and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, she spent eight years working in Silicon Valley before deciding to go home to Paraguay to help build a local tech industry that could attract big global firms.
Today, she’s a partner at Cibersons, a global tech and investment company based in Asunción. She says Paraguay has the potential to stand out because of one big advantage—cheap, clean, and plentiful electricity.
Almost all of Paraguay’s power comes from hydroelectric dams. The Itaipu Dam on the Paraná River supplies 90% of the country’s energy needs and also sends electricity to Brazil.
Paraguay now has the lowest electricity prices in South America and is the world’s largest exporter of renewable energy.
The government hopes this will draw international tech companies that need huge amounts of reliable power, especially for artificial intelligence (AI) data centres. Local entrepreneur Sebastian Ortiz-Chamorro points out that hydroelectric power is steady, unlike solar or wind, making it ideal for energy-hungry industries.
President Santiago Peña has already met companies like Google and OpenAI to promote investment. His technology minister, Gustavo Villate, says Paraguay’s young population, clean energy, low taxes, and stability are key selling points.
Near Asunción’s airport, the government is spending $20 million to build a “digital park,” which will host offices, training centres, and even a new University of Technology created with Taiwan. Villate says public, private, and academic cooperation will be essential to build an attractive tech ecosystem.
With an average age of 27, Paraguay has a young workforce. But training more people in technology is critical.
Vanessa Cañete, head of the Paraguayan Chamber of Software Industry, says the country is working to produce more programmers and software engineers. She also founded Girls Code, a non-profit offering robotics and programming workshops to help close the gender gap. More than 1,000 girls have been trained so far, and many developers are also learning English to better work with foreign companies.
Challenges remain, such as bureaucracy and adapting contracts to international standards, but Cibils believes the country’s advantages outweigh the obstacles. “If you put innovation at its core and use all the benefits Paraguay has, it can become a superpower,” she says.
Source: BBC.
