©Reuters. Ecuador obtains private investments for 5,000 million dollars in one year
Quito, May 5 (.).- Ecuador has finalized private investment agreements for 5,000 million dollars in one year, which could generate 130,000 direct jobs in the country, reported this Thursday the Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries, Julius Jose Prado.
“In about eleven months we have achieved 5,000 million dollars under the figure of private investment contracts,” Prado said at a press conference, for whom the country is “on the right path of productive reactivation.”
All this despite the fact that the Investment Law promoted by the Executive did not go ahead in the face of the refusal of the opposition in the National Assembly (Parliament), which has forced it to use “past laws with an absolutely different figure” to advance in the search for investments, according to the minister.
The head of the Production portfolio explained that investment contracts are between private companies and the State, which offers them certain benefits, such as a five-point reduction in Income Tax, as well as exemptions in the Exit Tax. Foreign exchange and tariffs for the import of raw materials and capital goods related to investment.
“Those 5,000 million dollars could generate about 130,000 direct jobs in Ecuador and, if we multiply with the international methodology, we could reach about 260,000 indirect jobs created during the term of these contracts,” he noted.
Most of the investments correspond to the industrial sector (18%), mining (17%), energy (16%), aquaculture (13%), technology (5%) and tourism (3%), among others.
Among the planned investments, he mentioned one in telecommunications for 198 million dollars in which a private firm will acquire and install a new submarine that connects Ecuador with Panama and the United States.
According to the minister, 60% of the investment is local and the rest is foreign direct, especially from Canada, Spain and Australia, among others.
