Google opens offices in El Salvador, here we tell you about it

The company indicated that this office opening is part of the agreement signed in August 2023 with the Salvadoran government, which includes the allocation of at least 500 million dollars.

The technology giant Google officially opened its offices in El Salvador on Monday in the company of the president on leave, Nayib Bukele, and also announced a grant for $ 200,000 (about 188,000 euros) for women entrepreneurs.

“For us, it is a milestone, because we are opening offices in El Salvador, an office that for us is a source of pride,” said Eduardo Lopez, president of Google Cloud for Latin America, at a brief inauguration ceremony.

The company indicated that this office opening is part of the agreement signed in August 2023 with the Salvadoran government, which includes the allocation of at least 500 million dollars from the Salvadoran state budget to pay for services.

Google’s projects in El Salvador seek to modernize the country in the areas of digital government, health, and education.

“I think this is an example that El Salvador is no longer the same country it was before, (…) of course we are not where we want to be, there is a long way to go to get there,” said President Bukele at the inauguration.

He indicated that the collaboration with Google will include projects in digital security, customs, cadastre, permit processing, and the opening of a technology center for training Salvadorans in the Historic Center of the capital, in addition to a data center.

“For El Salvador, this is a big step for the digitalization and improvement of our children’s education”, added Bukele, reelected last February, despite the constitutional prohibition.

Before the inauguration, Eleonora Rabinovich, Government Relations and Public Affairs for Google Latin America, announced that Google.org would provide $200,000 in grants to the organization Promujeres “to help develop entrepreneurs in El Salvador”.

This includes, said the company’s representative, access to financing, and training in digital skills “so that they can boost their businesses and become bigger and bigger”.

The State of El Salvador must allocate at least 500 million dollars in the coming years to implement this “strategic alliance” with Google, according to a law approved in September by the Legislative Assembly of the Central American country.

The regulation states that state institutions that sign individual agreements to obtain Google’s services, within the framework of the agreement, must guarantee the corresponding funds.

The Chancellery of El Salvador declared this millionaire agreement in reserve for 7 years, according to a resolution of its Public Information Access Unit (UAIP) to which EFE had access in October last year.

With information from EFE.

Source: Forbes Central America