The Banco Central de Reserva (BCR) informed that the average time to authorize export processes online is 37 seconds. Times have dropped from days and hours to less than a minute.
During november, the Bank reported 13,467 authorized operations. Of that total, 11,020 were to Central America and 2,447 to the rest of the world.
This has required that the other institutions also participate in the platform, a condition that has been possible to complete during the current administration.
In the case of imports, there were 20,260 permits approved in november of this year. Nine out of 10 of them were managed electronically. In addition, there were five institutions that contributed to achieve these times, such as the Health, Environment, National Defense and others.
El Salvador has maintained its exports in continuous growth during 2021 and 2022, until surpassing pre-pandemic levels. The export base already exceeds 2,000 companies, with a predominance of small and medium-sized companies.
Trade relations with other countries are an essential source of income for the country, as it is a small, dollarized and open economy.
Support for the export sector has gone hand in hand with the modernization of customs posts to provide better service and guarantee security. The Anti-smuggling Plan, under the responsibility of the General Directorate of Customs, a dependency of the Ministry of Finance, has identified cases totaling US$60 million.
Translated by: A.M