For nearly two decades, Salvadorans in Southern California have sent dollars and goods home to relatives by wire, mail and courier, shoring up the economy of the war-torn country they fled and feeding a consumer boom there.
Now, six years after peace accords ended the civil war, Salvadoran officials are eyeing the $1.2 billion in yearly remittances with discomfort. The money has distorted the country's economy. Aware that the lifeline from abroad will only fray with time, the Salvadoran government is turning to its emigrants to forge more lasting economic ties.
This month, a delegation of Salvadoran officials and 120 entrepreneurs eager to export everything from coffee to construction supplies will come to Los Angeles for a two-day summit with the burgeoning Salvadoran business community here.
For El Salvador, the First Business and Trade Conference El Salvador-Los Angeles offers a forum to troll for investors, learn about U.S. regulations and markets, and seal export deals with businesses here willing to market products to the region's Salvadoran community--the largest outside El Salvador.
For the emigrant community, it could bring franchise opportunities, a chance to invest in El Salvador's privatizing telecommunications and power industries and a promise of a better relationship with historically unreliable Salvadoran exporters.
The conference also signals a coming-of-age.
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Long fixated on El Salvador's 11-year war, the relatively young emigrant community is now turning its attention to economic development, transforming strong ties to the homeland into opportunities for trade. Estimated by some at more than 700,000, the Southland community comprises 70% of Salvadorans in the U.S.
"The community is accelerating its role from one of dealing with immigrant rights to one that's part of the mainstream, focusing on economic development and political participation," said City Councilman Mike Hernandez, a conference speaker. "I see the trade fair as part of that development."
The June 25-26 conference in Los Angeles is the most concerted effort yet by a Central American government to tap its resources abroad. A Guatemala Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center in October promoted tourism and sought new markets for exports, but it did not focus on Guatemalan emigrants as the vehicle for growth.
