- November 8, 2021
- Posted by: medium
- Category: National
The Minister of Production ends today his official trip to Spain with the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso.
"Today Ecuador has become a light in Latin America," said the Minister of Production, Foreign Trade and Investments of Ecuador, Julio José Prado, who framed that statement in a context of "openness towards foreign investment" that the new Ecuadorian executive pursues in the midst of a period of political and economic seizure in the region.
"We want to put Ecuador again in the circle of international investments, that we left almost ten years ago" and take advantage of "in the short term" the opportunity presented by Latin America, a region in which "there is a turn towards governments that are not so favorable to international investments or private companies," said the minister.
Prado ends today his official trip to Spain with the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, with the aim of encouraging investments in his country, and in which the head of the Ecuadorian Executive has met with the King of Spain, Felipe VI, and the president of the Spanish Government, the Socialist, Pedro Sánchez.
Bilateral Relations Ecuador and Spain
The Latin American country organizes the “Ecuador Open For Business” forum (Ecuador open to business) on November 19 and 20, with the aim of attracting foreign capital to finance “strategic projects” for the Ecuadorian economy, in which Spanish companies will compete to reach public-private collaboration agreements with the Ecuadorian government.
"We have met with Spanish medium -sized renewable energy companies, with investment banks, and infrastructure and logistics companies for civil works," said the minister, who also mentioned the possibility that two large Spanish banks acquire the Pacific Ecuadorian public bank, "which is for sale."
As priority sectors to capture foreign private financing, Prado also highlighted the oil industry and mining.
The minister defends himself from the criticisms his government has received for focusing on extractive activities in full climate awareness campaign, and assured that the Ecuadorian Executive "is highly committed to the ecological transition", and only wishes to welcome "companies that are socially and environmentally responsible", among which he highlighted the Spanish firms of renewable energy for their "enormous competitiveness."
Prado also referred to the meetings they have held with the Mayor's Office of the capital of Spain, with which they are studying “Technical Cooperation for Infrastructure and Sewerage in several cities (Ecuadorian)”, and advice on smart cities, “in which Spain is very advanced, especially Madrid.”
The minister reiterated the objective that the Spanish investments "double" in the next four years, and announced that Spanish renewable energy and Cobra energy companies will start their activities soon in Ecuador.
In 2019 Spain had an investment position in Ecuador of about 2,362 million dollars, in a range of sectors that included those of crude oil extraction, commercial distribution, manufacture of non -metallic mineral products, telecommunications and food industry, among others.
And according to the Bank of Ecuador, in 2020 it remained as a second foreign investor with 230.9 million dollars that year, 20 % of the total, behind Canada.
In addition, Spain was the fourth supplier and fifth client of the world of Ecuador in 2020 according to the IMF.
On the other hand, Prado praised the economic and diplomatic relations between the two countries, and highlighted the help that Spain lent to Ecuador to reach the bilateral trade agreement between its country and the European Union, which has facilitated the foreign direct investment of European companies.
Labor reform
Regarding the labor reform that the Ecuadorian Executive intends to approve soon, and to which unions and other social agents have been opposed in various protests against the Lasso Executive in recent weeks, Prado argued that it is pursued “to gain competitiveness to be able to generate greater conditions of employability for the six million Ecuadorians who do not have employment”.
The Ecuadorian minister referred to the "high informality rate" in the economy, which together with the unemployed "around 65 %" of the workload. "For these people it is for whom we have to make this change of economic model," he said.
"The only way to create such an amount of employment is through the private sector (...) with much more flexible working conditions," Prado explained, although it also goes "to create a social protection network through the government," he clarified.
To undertake these ambitious measures, the minister thanked the unlocking on the part of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of 4.5 billion announced in September, which will guarantee the bank deposits of companies and individuals, and will help generate “a more conducive climate for investments”.
The arrival of these funds can prevent Ecuador from having to go to the Chinese government as a last instance lender, which has greatly increased investments in Latin America in recent years, and whose financing usually links to the construction of works with their state companies or with the sale of crude oil as a counterpart.
Prado did mention that the companies of the Asian giant are investing in Ecuador, and “that meet the standards” of social and environmental inclusion required by the Latin American country.