Central American nation El Salvador urges Indian companies to invest in that country and to take advantage of the several incentives and benefits being offered by the new government of President Nayib Bukele. And is seeking investments from India in manufacturing and services, specifically in the areas of offshore business services, renewable energy, tourism, aeronautics, textiles and apparel, and light manufacturing.
In an exclusive interaction, Ariel Andrade Galindo, Ambassador of El Salvador to India said that “At the age of 37, President Nayib Bukele is the youngest leader in the region. Coming in with fresh ideas, he is working hard with a new team of ministers to make the country more investor-friendly.”
“We are in the phase of getting to know what is good for the youth of our nation, incentives which would attract investors, and how to maximize our resources for the betterment of our own economy as well expanding our trade relations with other countries through key concepts as blue economy and orange economy. Also, President Bukele has taken the commitment to curb and eradicate the gang violence,” he added.
According to him, “Though the new government in my country is in the process of settling down, we are looking at the new sectors we can collaborate with India. India has a lot of expertise in solar energy as well as renewable energy. As members of the International Solar Alliance, this is an area where we are looking at a future collaboration with companies based in India as well as tying up with government bodies as the Chennai based National Institute of Wind Energy.”
While the Central American nation is a large exporter of textiles, various sectors including pharmaceuticals, plastic, paper, agriculture machinery and technology are also open for Indian investments and expertise. “We must look for complementarities in the value chain of these industries, which are very important for both countries and with a lot of potential in third markets”, he said.
According to Galindo his country is also offering incentives and investment opportunities in an effort to woo global entrepreneurs. Today, El Salvador’s international services law is the only legislation in the region that provides full exemption from income tax for an indefinite period of time, among other benefits.
El Salvador is located in the heart of the Americas and it is an export-oriented free-market economy and could be a gateway to not only the US and adjoining nations but also to Europe.
According to him Aviation sector, especially MRO which has steadily evolved to become the most important in the Latin-American region, could be one of the areas where the two countries can cooperate.
Said senior officers in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) a grouping such as the Central American Integration System (SICA) is very important and has eight full members: Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
El Salvador, along with neighbouring Guatemala and Honduras, forms part of the Customs Union of Central America’s Northern Triangle, which has been pushing cross-border trade by cutting down the time it takes to move goods through customs. This represents a $6.2 billion market and a 32.1 million customer market with a $134 billion GDP.
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Next round of talk of India Central American Integration System (SICA) forum is expected to take place later this year, which will encourage better trade and bilateral relationship between the countries, government officials confirmed to Financial Express Online.
India has set up Centres of Excellence in Information Technology in the SICA countries and is concentrating on promoting cooperation in the five pillars of regional integration, as well as, in key areas such as agriculture, food security, energy security, MSMEs, and capacity building.
“We are hoping for the Regional Barefoot Vocational Training Centre (RBVTC) which is going to be set up in neighbouring Guatemala and will train Latin American women from remote villages in the rural area as Solar Technicians” the envoy added.
According to the ambassador, “The country is interested in Orange Economy which is building cultural infrastructure, which could include everything from education, training, film making, and software developers to fibre-optic networks. We are looking to India for technology related to several areas, from agriculture and water management to industry 4.0 and Artificial Intelligence.”
What is Orange Economy?
It refers to a country’s creative industries, whose goods and services are based on intellectual property. Under this cultural industry divided into three categories include: books, newspapers, magazines, libraries, film, television, photography, radio; other works that are based more like visual and performing arts, dance, opera, fashion, design, museums, architecture, gastronomy; and new works that tend to be digital or multimedia and have come about in the last half-century or so.