Diplomatic World 67

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Recovering coffee plantations will also contribute to the 2030
SDG agenda – we recover the environment, employment, provide
work for women. It is an industry that covers different SDGs.
We have a national bank – BANDESAL (Development Bank of
El Salvador) – to promote and empower the entrepreneurs the
micro, small and the medium businesses. In doing so this bank
will manage the above-mentioned trust fund for recovering
agriculture. They have also implemented different programmes
during the pandemic. For instance, they provided USD 300 to
each family, 1.5 million families benefited from this. Now they
have some special lines to empower small entrepreneurs. This
bank has received from the United Nations an acknowledgment
for their alignment with the 17 SDGs.
Again, let me emphasise that the Vice-President is not the implementing
agency. It is the different ministries and entities and
agencies that do so. We coordinate, track, advice them and keep
them moving forward.
TOURISM IS A VITAL BUSINESS SECTOR FOR EL
SALVADOR, AND ONE OF THE WORST AFFECT-
ED BY THE PANDEMIC-INDUCED CRISIS. HOW
IS EL SALVADOR BRANDING AND POSITIONING
ITSELF TO ATTRACT FOREIGN TRAVELLERS ONCE
AGAIN? HAVE YOU TAKEN ANY SPECIFIC MEAS-
URES TO PROTECT YOUR NATURAL HERITAGE,
WHICH IS KEY TO ATTRACTING TOURISTS?
We have bet on tourism, on eco-tourism. This is one of our goals
and priorities to prove our development process, to attract investors
and tourists. We have set up a project which is called Surf
city, thanks to our strategic and privileged position as a surfing
hotspot. During a recent championship, one of the jury members
mentioned that El Salvador is the only country in the world where
the jury can track the surfers all the time – in other countries due
to the position of the sun it cannot be surfed between certain
times of the day. That is a natural advantage that we need to
profit from.
Then, of course, through bitcoin, we will try to create this new
financial market for the future. Traditionally, we have had a focus
on maquilas – the textile industry. We are the 7th or 8th exporter
of textiles to the US market. Now, we need to move to the Fourth
Industrial Revolution in order to import software, new technologies,
to duplicate the production, and compete with Viet Nam
and other countries which are big exporters of textiles to the
United States.
Our country has had a bad image in the past. When we talked
about El Salvador people thought about the violence, the gangs,
etc. This discouraged tourism in the past. Our country was
known as the most violent in the world.
But, under the Bukele Presidency, we have overturned this
image, we have succeeded in combatting the violence. When
we entered government, we had approximately 20-22 deaths
per day. After two years of our mandate, in the month of August
2021, we reached zero homicides. We have recovered the peace
and the tranquillity in our communities. This means harmony and
security for the investors and for the tourists.
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