Weekly Report - 11 September 2014 (WR-14-36)

EL SALVADOR| La Unión port tender launched. On 4 September El Salvador’s President Salvador Sánchez Cerén formally launched an international public tender process for pre-qualified firms interested in administrating the La Unión port located in the eponymous easternmost department. Following the completion of a seven-year modernisation project last year, the La Unión port is now the country’s largest, with a capacity to accommodate 300 metre long ships and handle 750,000 shipping containers a year, double the cargo handling capacity of the other main port of Acajutla in the western department of Sonsonate. The tender will allow the four firms that pre-qualified during a process conducted last year that are interested in bidding for a concession to administer and operate the port, which is set to become one of Central America’s busiest. In a speech Sánchez Cerén said that the launch of the tender process marked a significant and “historic” departure point for the country’s efforts to become an international logistical hub. “This is the most important port infrastructure project in the eastern region. In fact it is the most important infrastructure project in El Salvador in the last 25 years”, Sánchez Cerén said. Highlighting that the port’s strategic location at the heart of various regional navigation routes provides La Unión with a competitive advantage when it comes to the provision of logistical and industrial services, Sánchez Cerén added that “at a Central American level it constitutes one of the region’s most relevant strategic logistical assets”. Sánchez Cerén added that the launch of the tender process and plans for the new port were in line with the recent announcement he made, along with his Honduran and Nicaraguan peers, regarding efforts to turn the Gulf of Fonseca, on which the La Unión port is located, into a peace and development zone (see previous page).

End of preview - This article contains approximately 746 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

• Subscribe
• Sign up for a one-time, 14-day trial