This footage was filmed and produced 15 April 2024.

Tech giant Google officially opened its offices in El Salvador on Monday in the company of the president on leave, Nayib Bukele, and also announced a grant of 200,000 dollars (about 188,000 euros) for women entrepreneurs.

"For us it is a milestone, because we are opening offices in El Salvador, an office that for us is a source of pride," said Eduardo Lopez, president of Google Cloud for Latin America, at a brief inauguration ceremony.

The company indicated that this office opening is part of the agreement signed in August 2023 with the Salvadoran government, which includes the allocation of at least 500 million dollars from the Salvadoran state budget to pay for services.

Google's projects in El Salvador seek to modernise the country in the areas of digital government, health and education.

"I think this is an example that El Salvador is no longer the same country it was before, (...) of course we are not where we want to be, we still have a long way to go to get there," said President Bukele at the inauguration.

He indicated that the collaboration with Google will include projects in digital security, customs, cadastre, permit processing and the opening of a technology centre for training Salvadorans in the historic centre of the capital, as well as a data centre.

"For El Salvador this is a big step for the digitalisation and improvement of our children's education," added Bukele, who was re-elected last February despite a constitutional ban.

SHOTLIST
1. various of the opening of the offices;
2. SOUNDBITE: Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador;
"The transformations that are taking place in El Salvador are so real that they are not only being experienced by Salvadorans, which is the most important thing for us, but also by foreign investors and top companies in the world, not only in the technology sector, but in the whole sector, because Google is not only a top company in technology, but a top company complete, period."