2005年-世界发展银行全球_El_Salvador___Investment_Climate_Assessment_Volume_1_Main_Findings_and_Policy_Recommendations_98页_8mb

El Salvador Investment Climate Assessment Summary

Core Content

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the investment climate in El Salvador, focusing on key areas such as governance, infrastructure, access to finance, skills, quality, and technology. It includes both main findings and policy recommendations, structured into short-term and long-term measures.

Main Findings

Governance and Insecurity

• Corruption: Salvadoran firms spend 1.7% of their revenues on bribes "to get things done," and 3.7% on bribes to secure government contracts. Larger firms with frequent interactions with government and low confidence in the judiciary are more affected.
• Crime: El Salvador has very high levels of crime and violence, with firms losing 1% of sales to crime and 4.25% to security costs. Smaller firms experience higher losses as a percentage of sales.
• Contract Enforcement: Firms rarely use courts to resolve overdue payments. Court use increases with firm size and foreign ownership but is hindered by inefficiency, complexity, and cost.
• Business-Government Relations: Delays in government procedures, especially environmental, sanitary, and construction permits, are significant. One-stop shops are underutilized and do not cover the slowest procedures. Tax appeal mechanisms are ineffective.

Infrastructure

Electricity

• Firms lose 1.3% of sales due to power outages.
• Electricity reliability is below regulatory standards, which are relatively low.
• Prices are volatile due to high concentration in generation.
• Demand is close to available capacity, and investments in generation are limited.

Telecommunications

• Internet access growth is slower than that of fixed and mobile telephones.
• High cost of internet access, scarcity of local content, and limited use of electronic transactions are key obstacles.

Transport

• Firms lose 1.5% of sales due to transportation failures.
• Transportation and customs issues affect 31% and 37% of manufacturing firms, respectively, creating constraints for CAFTA opportunities.
• These problems disproportionately impact firms engaged in international trade, especially within Central America.
• Local shipping costs are high, and road infrastructure needs improvement.

Key Policy Recommendations

Governance and Insecurity

Short-term Measures

• Increase transparency by clarifying the costs and time requirements for public agency transactions.
• Introduce score cards for government services, published regularly in local newspapers.
• Use the business community to collect and disseminate data on corrupt practices and service standards.

Long-term Measures

• Simplify government procurement and improve transparency.
• Establish internal and external auditing mechanisms in key public agencies.
• Create a public source of information on government contracts available online.
• Improve the honesty and efficiency of the judiciary.

Crime and Violence

Short-term Measures

• Increase judicial and policing efficiency while maintaining order, fairness, and access to due process.
• Expand crime prevention initiatives beyond youth gangs, focusing on municipal-level services such as public works, education, and health.

Long-term Measures

• Improve data collection on the impact of crime on the private sector.
• Enhance information systems for public security and justice institutions.
• Integrate social and situational prevention measures into national security policy, such as parenting programs, early childhood education, and cultural programs for at-risk adolescents.

Contract Enforcement

Short-term Measures

• Reduce case backlogs through improved case management and specialized courts or mediation.
• Improve court management with computerization and delegation of tasks to court clerks.

Long-term Measures

• Institute more oral procedures and eliminate the need for legally motivated claims.
• Improve notification systems for claims and judgments.

Business-Government Relations

Short-term Measures

• Publicize the services of ONI and CONAMYPE to increase their use by private firms.
• Expand the range of procedures covered in one-stop shops.
• Scale up administrative simplification efforts at the municipal level to the national level.

Long-term Measures

• Simplify procedures and put them online.
• Align these efforts with unified e-government and public procurement strategies.
• Improve appeal and complaint mechanisms for corporate taxation.

Infrastructure

Electricity

• Impose agreed penalties on distributors that fail to meet reliability standards and establish a calendar for gradual improvements.
• Streamline procedures for suppliers in the wholesale market and ensure distributors are fully compensated.
• Address local supply insufficiency by reinforcing transmission under SIEPAC commitments.

Telecommunications

• Lower internet costs through a special telephone rate.
• Create a high-level government entity to develop and implement an ICT strategy, integrated with e-government and public procurement strategies.
• Stimulate local internet content development through incentives.
• Introduce e-commerce legislation.
• Develop adult ICT training programs and modernize regulations to promote competition and fair pricing.

Transport

• Pursue aggressive investment plans to improve and maintain road infrastructure used in international trade.
• Integrate port and airport policies with land transportation policies.
• Continue modernizing and professionalizing customs.

Access to Finance

Short-term Measures

• Increase consolidated supervision of cross-border lending and public sector financial institutions.
• Strengthen the supervisory capacity of the superintendence and impose higher capital requirements on banks.

Long-term Measures

• Reform procedural legislation to enable predictable and affordable proceedings, reducing barriers to creditor rights and increasing recovery rates on defaulted loans.

Key Information

• El Salvador's financial system faces challenges in bank portfolio performance, cross-border lending supervision, and the lack of a lender of last resort.
• Despite good financial development, credit and deposit growth are slow, and interest rate margins are shrinking.
• Access to credit is less prevalent for smaller firms and those exporting outside Central America.
• Firms with real estate and externally audited financial statements are less credit-constrained.
• The country has a relatively low level of ISO certification and other quality standards, with only 5.2% of firms having ISO 9001:2000 certification.
• The report includes comparative data with other Central American countries and international benchmarks, highlighting areas for improvement.