*Digital Transformation Technology Center (TECHLAB). An innovation hub connecting industry, academia, entrepreneurs, and government in El Salvador.*

El Salvador is undergoing one of the most significant economic and social transformations in its history, strengthening its positioning as a safe, dynamic, and increasingly competitive destination for foreign investment. The 2026 Greenfield FDI Performance Index ranks El Salvador second in Latin America and the Caribbean for attracting new foreign direct investment projects.

Its dynamic business environment, supported by tax incentives for innovation and technology manufacturing, opens new opportunities for Finnish companies seeking markets, partners, and platforms for growth in the Americas.

El Salvador: A Gateway to the Americas

Located at the heart of the Americas, El Salvador offers a strategic platform for companies seeking to expand across the region. The Government´s commitment with trade facilitation and high investment in infrastructure, provides access to a Central American market of more than 50 million people.

Moreover, a dollarized economy provides predictability to companies, at the same time free trade agreements with preferential access to 43 countries around the globe, brings additional competitiveness to good produced in El Salvador.

For Finnish companies, this creates an opportunity to enter a new market, establish partnerships, pilot solutions, and use El Salvador as a platform from which to explore opportunities across the Americas.

***Port of Acajutla, El Salvador.*** The country’s main commercial seaport and a strategic hub for foreign trade and energy supply. In the foreground, the BW Tatiana, a floating storage and regasification unit supporting El Salvador’s LNG-based power infrastructure.

Startup Ecosystem and Innovation Policies

Companies entering El Salvador will find an increasingly connected business ecosystem, a growing number of startups and innovative firms expanding into international markets, and a government strongly committed to supporting entrepreneurship and innovation.

The country's startup ecosystem is maturing rapidly. El Salvador entered Latin America's top 10 in the StartupBlink´s Global Startup Ecosystem Index Report 2026. In 2025, San Salvador climbed 405 places in the same ranking and increased its score by more than 520%, making El Salvador the fastest-growing ecosystem among more than 1,400 cities around the world covered by the index.

Today, the country's interconnected innovation ecosystem includes more than 100 partners across the startup community, academia, the private sector, and the bilateral and multilateral partners.

El Salvador is also taking a distinctive approach to emerging technologies: it is developing a regulatory framework designed to enable new technologies and business models to be developed locally. This new framework includes:

Law for the Promotion of Innovation and Technology Manufacturing.
Digital Assets Law.
Law for the Promotion of Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies.
Robotics Technology Law.

Opportunities for Finnish Companies

Finnish companies can build on a strong foundation in El Salvador's expanding services and technology sectors.

In 2025, services accounted for 17% of GDP, while services exports exceeded US$6.214 billion, up 4% from 2024. In the first quarter of 2026, service exports reached US$1.526 billion, an 11% year-on-year increase. Telecommunications and information technology were among the fastest growing segments during the quarter, expanding by 22%.

This creates opportunities to develop and scale solutions in areas where Finland has recognized capabilities, including software, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, fintech, clean technology, and digital transformation.

El Salvador facilitates connections among startups, incubators, accelerators, companies, universities, and research centers through soft-landing programs, mentoring, knowledge exchange, startup scouting, and joint project development.

We invite Finnish companies, startups, incubators, investors, and research centers to see El Salvador not simply as another market, but as a strategic partner for innovation, solution development, and growth across the Americas.

Talent and the Digital Economy

El Salvador is moving toward an increasingly knowledge-based economy in which human capital and digital capabilities are becoming strategic assets for competitiveness, innovation, and investment.

Since 2019, thousands of people have strengthened their capabilities in digital technologies and English, as well as soft and managerial skills, through programs led by the Ministry of Economy.

For international companies, this means access to a growing pool of talent with capabilities relevant to technology, digital services, and internationally oriented operations.

By connecting Finnish expertise and technology with Salvadoran talent, a growing startup ecosystem, and regional market opportunities, El Salvador can offer more than an investment destination: it can serve as a platform for collaboration, innovation, and expansion.

How We Can Work Together

Finland and El Salvador complementary strengths create potential for collaboration in areas such as artificial intelligence, the data economy, secure networks and cybersecurity, digital education, clean energy, the circular economy, and emerging technologies.

But collaboration requires more than shared interests. It needs places where companies, talent, ideas, and technology can meet.

One such space is El Salvador's Digital Transformation Technology Center (TECHLAB), an innovation hub that brings together industry, academia, entrepreneurs, and government institutions to accelerate technology adoption and development.

TECHLAB works with an ecosystem of leading companies and organizations, including international partners: Google, Siemens, Meta, AWS, Oracle, Ericsson, Visa, inDrive, Spot Vision, Gyeongbuk Techno Park, and local partners: Boxful, New Eyes Media, TreeCloud Technologies, and the Don Bosco University.

El Salvador is ready to help turn initial conversations into business partnerships, knowledge exchange, new solutions, and investment opportunities.

The invitation is open: come to El Salvador, meet the ecosystem, explore the opportunities, and let's build what comes next together.

María Luisa Hayem

Minister of Economics of El Salvador

El Salvador and Finland: Building New Partnerships in Innovation, Technology, and Growth