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Biography

Merlin Alejandrina Barrera López has been the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry of El Salvador since 2014.

Her extensive career has encompassed a variety of roles, such as Executive Director of the Business and Development Foundation; Director of Planning, Research and Policy at the Central American Economic Integration Secretariat (SIECA); Liaison Adviser with the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) Regional Programme for Economic Inclusion of the Base of the Pyramid; and Coordinator of the Market Information and Intelligence System of the Ministry of Agriculture’s Agribusiness Conversion Programme, among others. As an independent consultant she has worked with the Corporation of Exporters of El Salvador (COEXPORT), the agricultural programme of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (AgroCAFTA), the Centre for the Promotion of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (CENPROMIYPE), the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Southern United States Trade Association (SUSTA), the Export Promotion Programme of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID-EXPRO), the El Salvador International Fairs and Conventions Centre (CIFCO) and the National Commission for Micro and Small Businesses (CONAMYPE), among other institutions.

In the academic sphere, she is a Professor at the University of El Salvador, Dr. José Matías Delgado University, Francisco Gavidia University and the Technological University of El Salvador. She is an Economics graduate from the José Simeón Cañas Central American University and holds postgraduate degrees in Applied Macroeconomics from the Catholic University of Chile and in Administration of Strategic Public Enterprises from the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Iztapalapa, Mexico, and a master’s degree in International Trade from the EUDE Business School.

Merlin Alejandrina Barrera López

Merlin Alejandrina Barrera López

Vice-Minister of Commerce and Industry at the Ministry of Economic Affairs of El Salvador