Por redacción de Sin Comillas
Con el objetivo de convertir a Puerto Rico en un Silicon Valley, Adrian Brito miembro de Essèntium Group, LLC, una firma que se dedica al desarrollo de negocios y la consultoría estratégica con sede en San Juan, le ha enviado un mensaje de correo electrónico al principal oficial ejecutivo de Apple, Inc., Tim Cook. Brito quiere llamar la atención sobre las ventajas contributivas que tiene Puerto Rico y lograr que se establezca compañías de tecnología.
Este es el mensaje que le envió a Cook. Brito ha autorizado a Sin Comillas ha reproducirlo.
Dear Mr. Cook:
Even though the odds of you answering this email are zero to none, I will still do it because I’m an Apple user, and I honestly think that Apple could benefit from what I’m about to say.
Just like any other big company who has to mass-manufacture electronic products, using the supply-chain of China and the Asian Tigers has a huge competitive advantage. Disciplined workers, lower wages and top-notch products. No contest about that.
However, I also know that Apple wants to build computers in the United States. Well, turns out there’s a little island called Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States where you get the best of both China and the U.S. — cheaper labor and American jobs.
Puerto Rico has a highly-skilled workforce, particularly in the areas of engineering and science, boasting the largest higher education institution per capita rate in the world. Building stuff here is also cheaper than in the United States because the average wage of an experienced and well-trained engineer is about $60,000.00 a year. That’s unthinkable in any other jurisdiction of the U.S.
But there’s a particularity. Puerto Rico is a hidden gem, a tax-haven in the United States.
Because of our special relationship with the United States, we are granted more fiscal autonomy, while still retaining all the legal protections of the U.S Constitution. This is our competitive advantage and Puerto Rico has capitalized on it with corporate-friendly laws, attractive tax-incentives and a plethora of economic incentives for both foreign and domestic capital.
Take Act 73 for example. This local law secures a four percent fixed income tax for eligible corporations and a one percent income tax for pioneer industries. Eligible companies get a 90 percent exemption for personal income and real property taxes, up to 10 percent credit in industrial energy consumption and a 50 percent credit for qualified R&D expenses. Eligible business can be either industrial units dedicated to manufacturing on a commercial scale, service markets outside of Puerto Rico (including the United States) or businesses providing services to high economic impact clusters. These categories include trading companies, medical and hospital services, marketing centers, commercial art and graphic design services, merchandise distributions, consulting, corporate headquarters, assembling, packaging and bottling services, electronic processing, amongst others. Apple qualifies for Act 73 — no question about that. I’ve already done the research.
For decades, pharmaceutical companies have taken advantage Puerto Rico’s unique status to do chemical compounding and create medicine. Over the years, Puerto Rico has turned into a worldwide pharmaceutical hub that currently produces 16 of the top 20-selling drugs in the mainland U.S. Even Microsoft has a manufacturing plant in Humacao, a little town in southeast Puerto Rico. (Hope you don’t mind…)
So I figured, shouldn’t Apple manufacture its products in Puerto Rico? It will certainly allow Apple to create more jobs in the U.S., while still retaining the benefits of lower manufacturing costs.
And guess what? It is also a Latin-American country where Spanish and English are both official languages!
I know this email is a long shot, but Puerto Ricans do not believe in quitting and wasting opportunities. You have a huge one here and we would love to work with you.
We still think differently.
Sincerely,
Adrian Brito
Brito explica que aunque a muchos puede sorprenderles que le envíe un mensaje de correo electrónico a uno de los hombres más ocupados del mundo, cree que Cook contesta ocasionalmente mensajes de correo electrónico de usuarios, pero además dice que lo animó un sentido de urgencia para mostrar el caso de Puerto Rico al mundo.
Brito tiene un bachillerato en Relaciones Internacionales de George Washington University y actualmente estudia derecho en la Universidad de Puerto Rico.
