El Salvador Can Become A Financial Center On The Americas, Like Singapore

President Nayib Bukele, could turn El Salvador into Singapore on the American continent. (photo: twitter @nayibbukele)

El Salvador has the potential to become a financial center on the Americas, similar to Singapore. This was revealed by Gabor Gurbacs, strategy adviser to investment management firm VanEck.

Gurbacs explained this in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on October 28. "I often tell portfolio managers and asset allocations that El Salvador has the potential to become Singapore in America," he tweeted.

Just as Singapore achieved in the late 1990s, Gurbacs hopes that investment in new capital and immigration will be the main driver behind El Salvador's economic growth in the coming years.

His comments came in response to a post on October 28 by US broadcaster and Bitcoin fan Max Keiser, nicknamed "Transfer to El Salvador, New Land of Freedom."

Keiser, who now lives in El Salvador, lists Bitcoin and the legal state of the US dollar, cleaning up crimes in El Salvador, beautiful beaches, and delicious coffee as some of the main reasons why the Central American country should be in the spotlight for everyone.

El Salvador's status as an emerging economy became more prominent when Nayib Bukele was elected president of the country in June 2019.

El Salvador's sovereign bonds have outperformed many other emerging markets this year, resulting in a 70% return in August. In fact, this caught the attention of JPMorgan and other major investment banks.

Bukele and the government of El Salvador made Bitcoin a legal currency in September 2021 and launched a Bitcoin custodial wallet, Chivo Wallet, for all Salvadorans of the same week.

El Salvador also utilized volcanic resources to operate the Bitcoin mining startup, Volcano Energy, which was launched in June after an investment of US$1 billion (Rp15.8 trillion). Keiser served as the company's executive chairman.

His first mining pool was launched after partnering with Bitcoin Luxor Technology miners in October.

El Salvador appointed Saifedean Ammous, author of The Bitcoin Standard, as economic adviser to the National Bitcoin Office in May. The country plans to raise Bitcoin as a strategy to remove its debt in the next five years.

Bukele also took bold steps to eliminate all taxes on technological innovation in April, which could attract more entrepreneurs and foreign capital to enter the country.