There is still no official information about whether brand name distributors will be able to keep importing fuel from their source of choice.
The request for entry into the oil agreement with Venezuela marks the economic and political differences between the outgoing government of Mauricio Funes and that of the new President Sanchez Ceren, indicating a higher affinity for the conglomerate led by Venezuela.
Industrial unions are pointing to "constant and unnecessary" confrontations between Funes and employers which is degrading the investment climate.
The President of the Salvadoran Association of Industrialists (ASI) accused Mauricio Funes of a "lack of investment" in the country, and that his statements undermine the climate of confidence needed to attract investment.
The disbursement of $277 million for development of the coastal zone will be delayed at least until after the next elections in El Salvador.
The decision to postpone Fomilenio II until 2014 was publicised by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).
According to the Salvadoran president, Mauricio Funes and the technical secretary of the presidency, Alexander Segovia, the project could be signed after presidential elections next year.
If approval is not given to the amendments to the Law on Public-Private Partnerships and the Money and Asset Laundering Act, the second disbursement will not be realised.
This was explained by Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes. "Donors are free to stipulate any conditions deemed appropriate. Everything that is the responsibility of the Executive has already been done," he said.
In deciding whether to approve Fomilenio II the Millennium Challenge Corporation verifies respect for institutions, good governance, transparency and ethics.
These are, according to Mari Carmen Aponte, the U.S. ambassador in El Salvador, some of the requirements which the country must take into account so that a second Millennium Fund is approved. "The eyes of the U.S.
The government has started a consultation process in order to define an updated measurement system for national data, governed by an independent body.
From a press release by the Ministry of Economy of El Salvador:
The Minister of Economy, Armando Flores, the Technical Secretary of the Presidency, Alexander Segovia and the representative of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in El Salvador, Rodrigo Parot, inaugurated a forum on a new statistics system which the Government of El Salvador wishes to implement. The two-day event will include the participation of experts in the field, from Mexico, Chile and Peru.
In the first six months of 2013 the Executive of El Salvador paid $11 million to various consultancies to perform tasks which regular staff can't do or don't know how to do.
According to an article in Elmundo.com.sv "From January 1 to June 28, the government set aside the amount of $11.1 million for the hiring of a number of consultancies ranging from construction supervision, administrative support and creating 'general guidelines' for policies, 'negotiating' with transporters from the Transit System in the Metropolitan Area of San Salvador (Sitramss) among other things."
The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador has lifted president Funes 's veto of the law regulating the advertising, marketing and consumption of tobacco, and protecting non-smokers.
An article by Amadeo Cabrera in Prensagrafica.com reported that at the end of the vote and amid applause, the president of Congress, the president of the Assembly and the deputy of the FMLN Siegfried Reyes declared: "56 votes in favor, zero votes against, five abstentions. Therefore, legislative decree number 771, by which the Law on Tobacco Control was issued, has been ratified and should follow the process established by the Constitution. "
President Funes has vetoed a law intended to prohibit smoking in public places.
Inconvenient and detrimental to business is how President Funes categorized the law which had been adopted in the legislature of June 23.
According to Funes, the implementation of the regulation could affect economic activity in various sectors, both in the restrictions on commercialization and also those affecting to advertising and promotion.
Funes and Martinelli have maintained high levels of approval from their countrymen, while Ortega is recovering, Colom and Lobo are still low and Chinchilla is still falling.
With the first few years of presidency behind them, Mauricio Funes and Ricardo Martinelli are the leaders in the area with the most approval from their citizens: The first for having faced difficult opposition, and for his education, personality and charisma.
In the first 23 months in office, nonfinancial public sector debt has increased by $2,074 million.
This large amount of debt would not be a problem if the economy had revived, but "... the current administration has not been able to revive the economy because local and foreign private investment has stagnated, and the public sector has not been acted with the effectiveness required to improve productive activities", says an article in Elsalvador.com
Employers are arguing that the new tax on large capital will affect employment generation.
Contrary to claims by President Maurcio Funes that the new tax will not affect the country's economic recovery, employers and economists agree that in the short term it will affect the generation of jobs and cause an increase in the cost of goods and services.
The Salvadoran president has a 72% approval rating, while Martinelli has 65%, Lobo 51%, Chinchilla 45%, Colom 41% and Ortega 40%.
Mauricio Funes, although still in second place in Latin America, falls three percentage points from a previous survey and now has 72% approval rating, topping the list of presidents in Central America with high evaluation.
Even the modest 2.5% growth forecast for the Salvadoran economy will be difficult to achieve if the government does not undertake 10 basic tasks.
There is not much new in these 10 tasks suggested to the Funes administration by four notorious economists. The lack of political agreement is perhaps the main reason these tasks are still pending, threatening to achieve the 2.5% growth committed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
El Salvador is not an easy country to govern, but despite all the difficulties faced during his presidential term, Mauricio Funes has the support of 79% of the population.
That makes him the most popular president in Latin America and this despite the fact El Salvador has the highest murder rate in the world and despite the fact its economy shrank 3.6% during the global economic crisis.