Editing San Salvador (section)

==Economy==
{{More citations needed section|date=March 2020}}
San Salvador disproportionately concentrates economic activity in the country. The metropolitan area accounts for 3% of the national territory but 70% of public and private investment is made there. The economy of San Salvador, [[Antiguo Cuscatlán]], and [[Santa Tecla, El Salvador|Santa Tecla]] is a mixed one composed mainly of services, private education, banking, business headquartering, and industrial manufacturing. Other municipalities in the metropolitan area depend either on industry, like Soyapango and Ilopango, on public services, like Mejicanos, or on power generation, as in Nejapa and Apopa. The other municipalities have not developed their own economies, however, they have provided the workforce required for industry in neighboring municipalities.

San Salvador, as well as the rest of the country, has used the U.S. dollar as its currency of exchange since 2001. Under the Monetary Integration Law, El Salvador adopted the U.S. dollar as a legal tender alongside the colón.<ref name="BCR">{{cite web|url=http://www.bcr.gob.sv/moneda_legal/dinsalvador.html|title=¿Qué es el Dinero?|date=2000|publisher=Banco Central de Reserva de El Salvador|language=es|trans-title=What is Money?|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613171241/http://www.bcr.gob.sv/moneda_legal/dinsalvador.html|archive-date=2007-06-13}}</ref> This decision came about as an attempt to encourage foreign investors to launch new companies in El Salvador, saving them the inconvenience of conversion to other currencies. San Salvador's economy is mostly based on remittances, followed by service and retail sector, rather by industry or manufacturing.

===Financial sector===

San Salvador is home to the great majority of corporations in the country, and supports many commercial activities, including food and beverage production; the pharmaceutical and chemical industries; the sale of automobiles, handicrafts, and construction materials; as well as appliance repair. Most national companies have their headquarters in San Salvador, which is also home to regional offices for transnational entities. [[Unicomer Group]], [[SIMAN|Almacenes Simán]], Grupo Roble, Grupo Real, Excel Automotríz, and Grupo Q all have their central offices in San Salvador. Since the early 2010s there has been a boom in the construction of call centers providing services to national and international companies alike.

San Salvador lacks a consolidated financial district; this is mainly due to the lack of urban planning that has plagued the city since the aftermath of the Salvadoran Civil War in 1992. Some clusters have formed, however, in an organic manner; today most of the banking and telecommunications are concentrated along the ''Alameda Manuel Enrique Araujo'' in District Two. Business complexes and towers have sprouted in the commercial districts of ''Colonia Escalón'' and ''Colonia San Benito'', both in District Three of the Salvadoran capital.

==== World Trade Center San Salvador ====
[[File:Plaza Futura Fountain.JPG|thumb|right|Torre Futura]]
The [[World Trade Center San Salvador]] is located in District 3 ''(Colonia Escalón)'' at Avenida Norte and Calle del Mirador. The World Trade Center is interconnected to two hotels (one of which is the Crowne Plaza Hotel), a convention center and a commercial center containing retail shops and restaurants. As of October 2012, the center consists of two towers of 8 levels each, with a total of {{convert|13000|m²|0|abbr=on}} of office space. Since their completion, the first two towers have maintained a 100% occupancy rate with multinational companies, embassies, and firms such as Banco Multisectorial de Inversiones (BMI), Ericsson, Continental Airlines, Microsoft, Inter-American Development Bank, and Banco Promérica maintaining offices there.

==== Centro Financiero Gigante ====
[[File:Centro Financiero Gigante.JPG|thumb|right|Centro Financiero Gigante]]
[[Centro Financiero Gigante]] is a complex of office buildings consisting of five towers, the highest of which is {{convert|77|m|ft|abbr=off|sp=us}} tall and has 19 floors. It is a phased project which began with the construction of the two towers. After several years the number of buildings has increased, and it has become one of the most significant business complexes in San Salvador. The tallest tower is occupied by the [[Telefónica]] phone company, the next tallest tower is used by RED Business Communication Systems. The complex also includes the [[Banco Azteca]] center, [[Stream Global Services]] representing Dell in Central America, The Israeli Embassy of San Salvador, [[Millicom|Tigo]], call centers, and other small offices and banks. The project started in 1997 with Phase I, the construction of the two tallest towers. In Phase II a seven-story-high tower for the old Dell company in Central America was built, and in Phase III a 12-story-high tower for Tigo and a 10-story-high tower for Telemovil. The final phase was remodeling of the Telemovil building to convert it into the Banco Azteca Center.

==== Alameda Manuel Enrique Araujo and Zona Rosa ====
[[File:Hilton SLV.jpg|thumb|right|Barcelo Hotel]]
Along ''Alameda Manuel Enrique Araujo'' and [[Zona Rosa (San Salvador)|Zona Rosa]] there are many businesses, banks, and financial centers, government institutions and museums. These include AFP Confia, the Superior Council of Public Health, the HSBC Central Office, AFP Crecer, the Ministry of Public Works, the ''Centro Internacional de Feria y Convenciones'' (International Center of Fairs and Conventions), the Presidential Palace, the ''Museo Nacional de Antropología David J. Guzman'' (National Museum of Anthropology), the Banco Promerica Financial Center, the Ministry of Tourism, the Channel 2 & 4 Studio Center, the Channel 6 Studio Center, and the '' Centro de Compañía de Alumbrado Eléctrico de San Salvador'' (CAESS-Centro) or Central Electric Lighting Company of San Salvador.

===Communications===
{{See also|Telecommunications in El Salvador}}

A relatively large proportion of residents have telephones, televisions, and access to the internet, and several communications companies have their headquarters in San Salvador. The largest are [[Tigo]], Claro-Telecom, Movistar-Telefónica, and [[Digicel]].

===Services and retail shopping===

San Salvador's economy is based mostly on the [[tertiary sector of the economy|service sector]]. The city has many restaurants and shopping malls, including [[Metrocentro]], the largest shopping mall in Central America, as well as retail stores such as [[Wal-Mart]], [[Office Max]], and a [[Pricesmart]] warehouse club. The tallest shopping mall in the region, [[Centro Comercial Galerias]], was built around and over an old mansion, ''La Casona'', dating from the late 1950s, which was home to a family of Spanish origin, the Guirolas.

===Industry===

San Salvador has small industrial zones scattered throughout the municipality, although most of them are concentrated in the eastern section near the border with Soyapango. Much of the industry is related to food processing, beverage manufacturing, and sugar refining. Construction materials ranging from [[ceramic tile]]s to [[Concrete masonry unit|concrete blocks]] and concrete are produced in large quantities; [[plastics extrusion]], including the production of [[piping]], is also an important industry.

Industrias La Constancia, El Salvador's largest brewer and bottler of purified water, dominates the Salvadoran export market of beers and bottled water. The company became part of the second largest brewer in the world, [[SABMiller]], in 2005. Its flagship brand is ''Pilsener'', a [[pilsner]] style [[lager]] beer, the national beer of El Salvador. In 2011, La Constancia centralized its operations and opened its new headquarters in San Salvador, where it moved in 1928 from the [[Santa Ana Department]]. The company produces the ''Agua Cristal'' brand of bottled water, the best selling in El Salvador and in the Central American region. The Coca-Cola company uses the La Constancia installations to manufacture its beverage brands sold in El Salvador and the rest of Central America.

[[Unilever]] has a plant in San Salvador. Its products include foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. Unilever manufactures all its products sold in Central America in San Salvador.