AB InBev, majority shareholder of Cervecería Nacional, announced an investment of $ 100 million in Ecuador

Anheuser Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris; and the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, signed the investment agreement in the United States.

AB InBev, multinational and majority shareholder of Cervecería Nacional, will invest $100 million in Ecuador. This was announced during a meeting, last Tuesday in the United States, between the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso; and Anheuser Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris.

The meeting, where Lasso spoke with businessmen, banks and some risk rating agencies, was organized by the Ecuadorian American Association. At the meeting, the Head of State provided details of the management undertaken by the Government to attract capital injection.

The announced amount will be mainly allocated to the creation of new production lines, development of innovations, digital platforms and reactivation of the more than 150,000 small businesses that are part of its value chain.

“We commit our investment in Ecuador because we trust that Ecuador is going in the right direction. We will continue adding efforts for the progress of the country and all Ecuadorians,” said Doukeris, who signed the minutes for the signing of an investment agreement.

Meanwhile, the global vice president of Corporate Affairs for AB InBev, Andrés Peñate; He stated that the investment policies proposed by the Ecuadorian government generate confidence in the sector and highlighted that Ecuador's initiatives are complete because they not only focus on economic reactivation, but also work at the same time to address social issues.

“Investing in people is also investing in the economy and that is what we have seen in President Lasso,” expressed Pañate.

For his part, Lasso announced that in the coming days he will go to the National Assembly to present a bill whose common thread is to encourage investment.

“Employment is not created by governments, you create it: investors (…). My mission is to promote local and international investment in Ecuador,” said Lasso, who at the same time explained that some of the strategic sectors in which it is expected to generate evident development in the next four years are the oil sector, which is intended to double the current production of the country; in the mining sector, consolidating and modernizing the industry; that of energy, where some pending projects will be reviewed: hydroelectric, wind and photovoltaic; among others.

The Minister of Economy and Finance, Simón Cueva, reiterated that there is interest from different nations around the world to support the development of the country through foreign investments:

“There is a positive perception that Ecuador shows a path of light for the region to recover economic activity,” Cueva indicated. In this regard, it was detailed that in the first 100 days of management, $700 million in new investments were already made and until December the goal of promoting more than $2,000 million for this area was established.