Yilport Holding Inc. will allocate more than $1.615 billion to modernize the port of Acajutla and activate the port of La Unión.
The President of the Republic, Nayib Bukele, announced yesterday the beginning of phase 3 of the Economic Plan for the five-year period 2024-2029, which will be known as Logistics and includes the largest private investment in the history of El Salvador.
YILPORT Holding Inc. will allocate more than $1,615 million to Unión Portuaria del Pacífico, in order to modernize the port of Acajutla and reactivate the port of La Unión; the latter was not operated by the ARENA or FMLN governments, which generated economic losses for the Salvadoran State.
The company has formed a mixed economy company with the Comisión Ejecutiva Portuaria Autónoma (CEPA) to operate both ports for the next 50 years. “The investment will be executed in stages, starting at the end of this year. In the first stage we will improve the infrastructure of the port of Acajutla and purchase new equipment to reduce port response times immediately,” it was reported through a video clip posted by President Bukele on social network X. In the second stage, new infrastructure will be built to triple the terminal’s capacity.
While in the port of La Union the first stage will include an initial dredging to maintain the depth and activate the terminal and modern equipment such as cranes, loaders and backhoes will be acquired.
This investment, announced yesterday, is the result of the official visit that President Nayib Bukele made to Turkey in 2022. “Phase 3 of the Economic Plan will generate new and better commercial opportunities for our country, starting with the Pacific Port Union,” the video added.
Phase 3 of the Economic Plan is in line with the announcement made by the President last June 1st -at the presidential inauguration ceremony-, when he informed that his bet for the five-year term 2024-2019 is to dynamize the economy, as the second step after solving insecurity.
The two previous phases, 1 and 2, of the Economic Plan were announced by the Salvadoran President last July 16. The first is Food, for which tariffs were eliminated on 116 products of the expanded basic food basket. The bill to make this measure possible was sent by the Executive to the Legislative Assembly for its approval.
In the legislative plenary it was voted, mainly by the parliamentary groups of Nuevas Ideas, PCN and PDC, but it was attacked by the political opposition, especially by the FMLN party and its general secretary, Manuel Flores. This phase includes the construction of supply centers and the installation of agromarkets on a national scale to provide better products and prices to customers in relation to the rest of the stores.
Several analysts have valued that the construction of the supply centers and agromarkets are wise measures taken by the Executive to benefit the pockets of Salvadorans who are affected by the increase in the price of products due to global inflation.
On the same day, July 16, the President informed that phase 2 of the Economic Plan is called Technology and inaugurated Data Trust, which is the first Tier III data center in El Salvador, located in Altius Tech Park, in Ciudad Arce, La Libertad, the first technology park in El Salvador, covering 13 hectares and 44,000 square meters of construction.
“In Data Trust, it is expected that there will be sufficient investment. Together with the Aerocluster that we will soon inaugurate, we expect an investment of more than $1 billion”, the President announced on that occasion.
Source: Diario El Salvador
