SAN SALVADOR—PROESA, El Salvador’s investment agency, has retained Fleishman-Hillard to assist with the first international promotional campaign in the nation’s history. The campaign is designed to attract foreign investment, with an emphasis on five sectors in which El Salvador says it has competitive advantages: agribusiness, call centers, electronics, manufacturing and textiles and apparel.
 
A decade after the end of a civil war, El Salvador boasts the lowest interest rates in Central America and macroeconomic stability underscored by a coveted “investment grade” credit rating. El Salvador’s average inflation rate and GDP growth throughout the 1990s was the second best in Latin America, surpassed only by Chile.
 
“Those who closely follow the region know that El Salvador is one of the most competitive market-driven economies in the world today,” said Carlos Quintanilla Schmidt, vice president of El Salvador and head of PROESA. “The campaign theme, ‘El Salvador Works,’ derived from public opinion research results, aims to take advantage of our country’s reputation for having a loyal and hard-working labor force.”
 
El Salvador has also become a regional free trade advocate, having signed commercial agreements with Mexico, Chile, the Dominican Republic and Panama in the past two years. Moreover, the country is currently negotiating a free trade pact with Canada and is holding pre-negotiation talks with the United States.
 
Fleishman-Hillard will supervise the strategic, advertising and public relations components of the campaign. The agency’s targeted program is first being launched in the U.S. and will later expand into other relevant markets.