The Embassy of El Salvador in Berlin

Amb. Florencia Eugenia Vilanova de von Oehsen

Education:

1994 Graduated from scholarship in Political Sciences from the USAID/DEMOS Foundation, San Salvador

1994-1997 completed 3 years of her degree in Administrative Computing at the Francisco Gavidia University, El Salvador

2003 Bachelor of Business Administration at the Academy of Management and Economics (VWA), Berlin, Germany

2011 "Virtual Diploma of Specialisation on International Migration for Salvadorian Consuls in the World", given by MIREX, UCA; European Union, UNDP and Human Development and Migration

2013 Training and Specialisation as a Bicultural and Binational Mediator in Berlin

since 2016 Course on Public International Law, IEESFORD; El Salvador (distance learning)

Languages Spoken

Spanish, German and English

Professional Career

1991-1997 | Worked on three German Technical Cooperation projects in El Salvador

1997 | Joining the Foreign Service as Administrative Assistant at the Embassy of El Salvador in Bonn, Germany

2002 | Appointed as Vice Consul at the Embassy in Berlin

2005 | Transferred to the Consulate General of El Salvador in Washington, D.C., USA, as Vice Consul and Consul for the entire Metro area (DC, VA and MA)

2007 | First Secretary, Head of Administrative and Financial Affairs (EDAF) and Consul General in Berlin (until 2016)

2008-2011 | Treasurer of the Association of Press Agencies and Culture of Berlin

2011-2015 | Dean of the Berlin Consular Corps (BCC)

2016 -2017 | Minister Counselor of the Embassy in Berlin and concurrent countries as Chargée d’Affaires, a. i.

Bilateral political relations have traditionally been good and friendly. The two countries also work together in international and multilateral bodies. Until 2013, Germany was El Salvador’s principal European trading partner and is the biggest importer of the country’s coffee. In 2014, Germany imported from El Salvador, goods worth just USD 23.3 million, compared with USD 57.8 million in 2013. German exports to El Salvador were worth USD 151.5 million in 2014, compared with USD 167.8 million in 2013. The sharp decline in El Salvador’s exports to Germany in the past four years is due mainly to the low price of coffee and, more recently, also to the fall in the volume of coffee exports as a result of the crisis affecting coffee roasters, coffee accounting for 90 per cent of the country’s exports to Germany. The German-El Salvadorian Chamber of Industry and Commerce currently has nearly 100 member companies. In August 1994, the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce in the Central America set up a German Regional Chamber of Commerce for Central America and the Caribbean, which is based in Guatemala. A bilateral investment protection and promotion agreement was signed in December 1997 and entered into force on 15 April 2001.

As for the Development cooperation, it focuses on the following sectors: environmental and climate protection, renewable energy and energy efficiency, promoting the economy and security and preventing youth violence. Bilateral cooperation also includes a project to support fiscal reform and a waste management project. With regard to the cultural relations, German as a foreign language plays only a limited role in El Salvador but the Goethe Institute-funded language courses run by the German School’s Support Association are well attended. The private language school Academia Europea also offers German courses. The German School San Salvador (an International School with enhanced German instruction) is currently attended by approximately 900 students. The school has an outstanding reputation and is recognised as an excellent German school abroad. It celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2015. Since the school was authorised to hold dual-language International Baccalaureate examinations, well over half the school-leavers have gone on to study in Germany.