By: Alexandra Hill T.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador
Strategically located in the heart of the Americas, El Salvador is a country that has embarked on an unprecedented transformation process, specifically in June 2019. This transformation has been driven by a vision focused on the well-being of its people and under a single leadership. This has led the country to position itself as the safest in the Western Hemisphere and has also served as a joint commitment to building a better nation.
President Nayib Bukele, firmly convinced of the urgent need to guarantee favourable conditions for Salvadorans, promoted a series of public policies, beginning with the issue of security, removing El Salvador from the list of the most violent countries in the world and also positioning it as a benchmark in the Americas in the fight against organized crime.
The substantial improvement in security has been key to creating an enabling environment to attract foreign investment and boost the tourism industry. As of the first quarter of 2025, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) totalled US$11.674 billion, reflecting the growing interest in investing in priority sectors, driven by a more secure environment, infrastructure improvements, and more competitive investment attraction policies.
El Salvador now stands as a regional leader in business facilitation, whose capacity for diversification is reflected in its export records, which totalled US$3.4183 billion between January and June 2025 in various high-potential productive sectors such as textiles and apparel, agribusiness, food and beverages, plastics and rubber, among others.
Furthermore, the country is at the ideal moment to open up to new markets, strengthening strategies that will allow for economic growth and diversification of investment opportunities. With an unprecedented security climate, a competitive legal framework, and constantly modernizing infrastructure, the country has become an attractive destination for companies and entrepreneurs seeking to expand in the region.
Macroeconomic stability, tax incentives, and a commitment to innovation and digitalization are laying the foundation for sustainable growth, positioning El Salvador as a strategic hub for trade and business in Central America. This is the time to explore alliances, leverage local talent, and be part of the most dynamic economic transformation in the region.
El Salvador is also the only Central American country with a Level 1 travel alert issued by the U.S. Department of State.
In 2024, the country experienced an 81% increase in international visitor arrivals, making it the second fastest-growing destination worldwide.
Thanks to this administration’s renewed foreign policy vision, El Salvador has strengthened its relations with various nations, including India, a close partner with whom we have promoted various initiatives in areas such as education, healthcare, digital transformation, and culture, among others, thus contributing to the efforts made for a better country.
Convinced that a new El Salvador requires investment in our children, we have developed an education reform aimed at providing quality education and reducing the basic skills gap. Within this framework, and thanks to the support of the India-UN Development Partnership Fund, we have implemented the “Reading at Home” project, which seeks to strengthen the reading skills of children as young as 3 years old.
This US$1 million initiative is being implemented by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). It aims to benefit more than 6,000 children, ages 3 to 10, in 84 public schools across the country. This project will benefit more than 18,000 books and support materials in various formats. Children can access these resources not only at their schools but also take the publications with them to continue reading at home, making parents a key part of this process.
In December 2024, as part of the strategic collaboration between both nations, we signed a joint work agreement that enables the execution of five initiatives annually, known as quick-impact projects, each for an amount of up to US$50,000. This represents a total investment of US$1,250,000 in projects focused on the creation and improvement of infrastructure, as well as social projects in the areas of education, health, sanitation, and community development.
We also highlight the invaluable support that the Government of India has provided in the context of capacity building for Salvadoran officials through the development of courses, diplomas, seminars, and forums, which have promoted cultural and knowledge exchange between both nations.
At the regional level, we highlight the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Mechanism between the countries that make up the Central American Integration System (SICA) and India, a space we have created specifically to strengthen ties, with the goal of identifying and promoting mutually beneficial initiatives in collaborative sectors such as food and nutrition security, agriculture, renewable energy, technology, and health—areas in which India is a world leader.
These are just a sample of the joint work with India, a nation with which we share a vision of development focused on the well-being of our populations, and with whom, for 46 years, we have cultivated a relationship based on friendship and cooperation, constituting a long and solid partnership founded on common benefit.
And it is precisely this confidence in the country’s transformation process that we are promoting as a government that has allowed us to deepen these ties of cooperation. During my working visit to India in 2023, I expressed to Foreign Minister Jaishankar that India is an important ally for El Salvador, and, in accordance with President Bukele’s mandate, I reaffirmed our commitment to opening up to the world like never before, toward countries that are leaders in different areas. Through this, we will continue to strengthen the ties of friendship and cooperation to carry out important projects.
Dear readers of Envoy Excellency, I am pleased to reiterate that El Salvador will continue to strengthen bilateral ties and expand our work agenda with India, a strategic ally in continuing the country’s most rapid transformation in modern history.