El Salvador is keen to attract investments from Indian companies in the energy, ITeS, pharma, manufacturing and textiles sectors, the Central American country’s envoy said.
In an interaction with journalists at The Hindu on Tuesday, Ariel Andrade Galindo, El Salvador’s Ambassador to India, said the country was looking to diversify its energy sources.
“We are trying to change our basket of sources of energy from fossil fuels. We also have growing needs for more energy. We are looking at possibilities, also have geothermal energy because there are more than 40 volcanoes in El Salvador. We have been working on these,” Mr. Galindo said.
The Ambassador said the country was looking at different forms of energy such as solar, wind, and biomass. “Last year, 25% of our energy was bought from outside. We need to fulfil our development goals by 2035 and it cannot be achieved with fossil fuels, but through renewable energy. There is a big opportunity there,” he said.
Indian companies investing in El Salvador would be provided concessions including on land, tax exemptions, and duty-free import of equipment.
Mr. Galindo said pharmaceuticals was another sector with opportunities.
Observing that a company from Tamil Nadu was already a part of El Salvador’s pharma industry, he said: “The market in the country changed after that and new rules were made to make the market more open. We are looking not only for lower prices [of drugs] but also health of the people.”
Mr. Galindo, who is scheduled to meet Tamil Nadu’s Chief Secretary on Wednesday, is also likely to call on the Chief Minister to explore possibilities for collaboration.
Jumbo ties
The Ambassador also spoke of El Salvador’s ties with ‘Manjula’, an Indian elephant that was sent to the country in the 1950s through Germany and died in 2010.
“She became an icon in El Salvador, it was the only elephant in the country,” he said.
“The day Manjula died, people got really sad…there was national mourning.”
The country has since then been trying to get another elephant from India, but without much success.
Yashwanth Kumar Venkatraman, El Salvador’s Honorary Consul in Chennai, said one of the first assignments that had been given to him at the time of his appointment was to try to get an elephant. “The Ambassador said Manjula was dying and we want another elephant,” he said.
“There’s a huge problem to export animals from India,” Dr. Venkatraman observed. “It can happen at a political level. May be when the top leaders of the two countries meet, hopefully they will exchange [animals],” he said.