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The 2013 amendment also redefined and eased some of the requirements to be met by businesses wishing to take advantage of the LSI (Law on International Services) benefits. These requirements vary depending on the nature of the service and whether it is situated in a park or a service centre. In general, there are minimum requirements in terms of investment (which in some cases have been reduced), employment (ten jobs), length of contract (reduced from one year to six months), and infrastructure (including environmental and safety conditions), and it is mandatory to submit a business plan. The Ministry of the Economy is responsible for implementing the LSI and giving businesses authorization to operate. The authorities have indicated that around 50 businesses are operating under the LSI. No information could be obtained on the value of their service exports.

FONDEPRO (Production Development Fund)'s main emphasis is on helping to raise productivity and competitiveness in MSMEs. It provides non reimbursable co financing to enable them to improve the quality of their products and processes, increase output and promote exports, encourage innovation, increase the creation of value added and boost production chains. The types of activity eligible include (...) cleaner production, energy efficiency and prospection, (...) It is financed through contributions from international organizations such as the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), IDB loans and resources received from the government budget. Between 2010 and 2015, a total amount of US$11.6 million was disbursed.

Table 3.14 BANDESAL's principal programmes
Programme Description Term Grace period
1. First tier programmes
Energy generation Financing of renewable sources of energy 2 20 years 1 5 years
(...)

The Law provides that action by the State or local authorities for the promotion of MSMEs should focus on promoting and developing programmes and mechanisms to foster their creation, development and competitiveness in the short, medium and long terms and encourage the economic, financial, social and environmental sustainability of the actors involved; (...)

During the review period, El Salvador drew up a national intellectual property policy. This document was issued in 2014 and its objective is to "make intellectual property a key component of national development, contributing to better use of the population's capacity for creating knowledge and generating conditions to improve the competitive position through proper use of intellectual property protection tools". The following are some of the action lines envisaged in the national intellectual property policy: (...) protection of biodiversity and knowledge of the cultural expressions of indigenous peoples; (...)

The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) is responsible for establishing national agricultural policy, with the support of various centralized and decentralized technical bodies, such as the sector's dedicated autonomous institutes. The MAG's Sectoral Policies and Planning Office (OPPS) carries out analyses and evaluations of the sector's economic performance, including social, environmental and land planning surveys, (...)

(...) Since 2014, El Salvador's agricultural policy has been set out in the "Agriculture for Well Being" Institutional Strategy Plan (PEI), an integral part of the Five-Year Development Plan 2014 2019. The PEI identifies the main challenges facing the agricultural sector: (...) (iii) establishing the basis for the adaptation of crop farming, livestock farming, fishing and aquaculture to climate change; (...)

The PEI ("Agriculture for Well Being" Institutional Strategy Plan) also established the MAG (Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock)'s main objectives for the period 2014-2019: (...) environmental sustainability, mitigation of and adaptation to climate change (...)

Within the regional integration context, El Salvador participates in the Central American Agricultural Policy (PACA), developed for the period 2008-2017, along with Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Belize. Its objectives include: (...) (i) "contributing to the development of an economically, socially, environmentally and politico-institutionally sustainable Central American agriculture"; (...)

(…) Between 2009 and 2014, the BFA (Agricultural Development Bank) disbursed US$367.4 million in agricultural loans, of which 43.9% was for basic foods, 20.9% for aquaculture and fishing, and 12.7% for coffee. (...)