A government official in Nicaragua with responsibility for brining overseas investment into the country, Álvaro Baltodano, has identified leather-covered dashboard panels for cars as a potential new source of employment.

Speaking in mid-February after the opening of a fifth factory in Nicaragua by Japanese automotive electrical distribution systems manufacturer Yazaki, Mr Baltodano told local media that there are other automotive components that suppliers can produce in Nicaragua. He said recent visits to Mexico had convinced him that producing leather-covered dashboard panels is a real possibility for Nicaraguan factories.

He said the automotive industry is now well established in Mexico and that production companies there are moving further along the value chain towards finished vehicle assembly.

"We can make the components that Mexican companies no longer want to make," he said. "A lot of leather that Nicaragua exports to Mexico at the moment is going into car seats and dashboard panels. We can start making the panels ourselves."

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