Citing ease of doing business, Latin American nation El Salvador has asked Indian companies to invest there and take advantage of different tax benefits and incentives offered.

“We are looking to collaborate in solar energy. India is becoming one of the largest countries with a lot of expertise in solar energy. We are trying to change our energy need by getting more renewable energy, mostly solar energy,” Ariel Andrade Galindo, Ambassador of El Salvador to India, told PTI in an interview on Saturday.

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He said Indian businessmen don’t yet know market opportunities in his country and the possibilities available there.

“That is something we should work. It is not only pharma, BPO and automobiles, there are lots of possibilities in each and every sector,” the Ambassador said.

Galindo said El Salvador offers incentives and investment opportunities to woo entrepreneurs.

“We have identified many sectors for this. We are giving various incentives including some tax benefits,” he said and suggested that Indian companies take benefits of these opportunities.

Citing an example, Galindo said El Salvador’s international services law is the only legislation in the region that provides full exemption from income tax for an indefinite period of time.

“The idea we are looking for is ‘complimentaries’. We should see the complimentaries in all the sectors like the services and aviation. India should look at Latin America as to how it can add to the complimentaries,” he said.

El Salvador and India enjoy close and friendly relations.

“I think last year, 32 per cent of our import came from the US, Japan, South Korea. If you see India, it is in the 14th position as our partner with only one per cent of importation for the world. For Indian companies there are possibilities to look out to see how they can grow their exportation of products,” the Ambassador said.

He said El Salvador is located in the heart of the Americas and it is an export-oriented free-market economy.

It is one of the best countries for doing business in the region, Galindo said.

He said the two countries need to work together to raise awareness among the people of the two origins.

“I think in the past we had been looking at the other way. Latin America was looking at the US. And some parts of Europe. India has been looking to some of the regions to boost some of (trades) I think we need to make bridges to let us know better. We need to look ways to bring businessmen from here to there and from there to here, the Ambassador said.

He said in Latin America aviation sector is evolving.

“We have lots of pilots. We have a school for pilots in my country. If India is growing in this sector may be they can explore how to make some cooperation in this. I am not saying that maybe take some pilots from there but explore how to collaborate in this sector. There is a lot of capacities. It is something we can do,” Galindo said.

The Ambassador said connectivity between the two nations is an issue but “unless we don’t improve trade ties we won’t have many people coming between the two countries”.