El Salvador wants to introduce Atlanta to a “rebranded” country ready to help manufacturers and service providers diversify their markets at a time of shifting global supply chains.
Often highlighted in U.S. news reports as an exporter of gang violence and economic migrants, the Central American nation is burnishing its image as a haven of hospitality in a push to attract foreign investment.
Representatives from the country’s embassy in Washington, including Ambassador Milena Mayorga, visited Atlanta this week to frame up a turnaround story they say is fueled by a Salvadoran spirit of welcome and resilience.
The country of 6.3 million was ripped apart by more than a decade of civil war that ended in the early 1990s. Since then, El Salvador has become notorious for violence that has forced thousands to flee to the United States in search of asylum and opportunity.
Homicides have dropped sharply, however, since June 2019, when President Nayib Bukele took office, which the government attributes to its Territorial Control Plan, a crackdown on gangs meant to restore the government’s hold on crime-ridden neighborhoods. Mass arrests, meanwhile, have caused concern that individual freedoms are being eroded during a state of emergency that has lasted more than eight months.
Mr. Bukele, a tech-savvy 39-year-old, has also run the world’s largest national cryptocurrency experiment by making El Salvador the first nation to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. Ostensibly, the bid is aimed at boosting financial inclusion and reducing friction in a country with a large unbanked population — and where remittances from the U.S. make up a significant proportion of GDP.
The results, analysts say, have been mixed, especially as bitcoin prices have tanked over the last two years and the rollout of a government-sponsored digital wallet has faced persistent problems. But the move has put El Salvador on the map for crypto firms and has generated publicity in tech circles.
“Before, probably if you heard about El Salvador, you were just hearing about gangs, homicides or the civil war. Right now, probably you will hear about our president, Nayib Bukele, our surf tournaments or about bitcoin adoption, so it’s a different narrative, different projects, and I think that’s why we’re talking about rebranding El Salvador,” Ms. Mayorga said in an interview with Global Atlanta.
The ambassador, who placed in the top 10 representing El Salvador in the Miss Universe pageant in 1996, was appointed by Mr. Bukele as ambassador to the United States in December 2020.
She said her visit to Atlanta was a first step toward more deeply engaging the large Salvadoran diaspora here and enlisting Atlanta’s strong corporate community participate in the country’s growth story. El Salvador has a consulate general in Duluth run by Consul General Monica Marin Cruz.
“We have to come. Georgia is an amazing state. It has everything, so that’s why it’s very important for us to keep coming. Not just one time, but to come back,” Ms. Mayorga said.
Her trip included meetings with Mayor Andre Dickens and an appearance at the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s annual legislative luncheon, which also included a speech by Gov. Brian Kemp. Ambassador Mayorga was made an honorary citizen of Georgia during her trip and said Georgia Department of Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson told her she was the first Salvadoran ambassador to visit the department.
Es la primera vez que un embajador de El Salvador se acerca al Dept. de Desarrollo Económico de Georgia @gdecd, nos expresó el Comisionado Pat Wilson.
Conversamos sobre oportunidades laborales, además de intercambio comercial entre el Estado de Georgia y el país. pic.twitter.com/nMhUMTduB3
— Milena Mayorga (@MilenaMayorga) March 7, 2023
Investing is believing
The night before, the Georgia Hispanic Chamber hosted a networking reception and investment seminar in at the Mayfair Tower condominium complex in Midtown.
In a presentation, Minister Counselor Mardoqueo Tóchez from the Salvadoran embassy painted a picture of a country in transition from obsolescence to opportunity, where service-industry professionals await with ready smiles and manufacturing workers welcome the chance to roll up their sleeves.
The capital city, San Salvador, has flights to 35 destinations including Atlanta, just over three hours away, said Dr. Tóchez. And this “country of short distances” is just about five hours’ drive from one side to the other, making logistics simple. For exporting, El Salvador has Pacific seaports and is working with Honduras on a “dry canal” to get goods to the Caribbean.
El Salvador exported more than $7.1 billion in manufactured products last year, with the largest sector being apparel (about 39 percent of the total). Minimum wage on average in the industrial sector is around $365 per month.
With the CAFTA-DR free-trade agreement with the United States in place since 2006, most trade is free of duties, and U.S. firms investing in the country are guaranteed national treatment and what Dr. Tóchez, a lawyer specializing in arbitration, called a stable legal environment.
Services, he said, are also on the rise, as El Salvador has become a hub for maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO) operations for air carriers like Avianca and Delta Air Lines. Tourism has risen as the security situation has improved, and more than a quarter of the college students in the country are focused on becoming engineers.
Tax abatements are available for renewable-energy firms in wind and solar that can help the country wean off of its dependence on oil and gas. Opportunities abound in agriculture, pharmaceuticals and technology, especially around cryptocurrency and fintech. Dr. Tochez pointed to software development firm Applaudo as an example of the country’s entrepreneurial drive.
Overall, visitors tend to overcome their fears after a single trip, Dr. Tochez said, recounting a story about a recent guest who has been back 10 times since he first dared to come a few years ago.
“The important thing for us is that you feel comfortable with us and we can feel comfortable with you. When we start talking about your plans in El Salvador, we can start to work with our authorities over there and give you the opportunity to know — and give us the opportunity to know you.”
Trade mission being explored
Georgians may get their chance sooner rather than later, as the Georgia Hispanic Chamber plans to lead a trade mission to El Salvador, according to Antonio Molina, an attorney at Nguyen and Pham law firm who chairs the chamber.
“From a call center, to textiles, to pharmaceuticals, to car manufacturing, El Salvador esta listo, esta preparado — it is ready to serve you,” Mr. Molina said, adding that the country’s sense of courtesy would feel familiar to folks from the South.
“It’s ingrained in our culture to be very hospitable and love one another. And that’s what you’re going to get.”
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To learn more about a potential trade mission, contact the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce at www.ghcc.org.
Learn more about the Duluth-based Consulate General of El Salvador on Facebook here or follow Consul General Marin on Twitter here.