Ecuador expects investments of 1.2 billion this year

QUITO (AP) — Ecuador expects private investments of $1.2 billion by the end of the year and about $6 billion over the next three to four years, especially in sectors such as mining, renewable energy, industry and the fishing sector, said Julio José Prado, Minister of Production, Foreign Trade and Investment.

Speaking to The Associated Press on Tuesday, the minister said that stakeholders include investors and companies from the United States, Canada, England and Spain, which together with Ecuadorian investors are willing to develop initiatives in these sectors.

“There is a very clear vision of opening Ecuador to the world, but in a way that allows us to take advantage of current production chains... and this we believe will affect more employment, more investment and more cheap products,” he explained.

Asked about the effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Ecuadorian foreign trade, he replied that one of the consequences is the reduction in the volume of products shipped such as bananas - the hardest hit with $15 million in weekly losses - flowers and shrimp, in addition to the fact that no outstanding debts can be collected nor does it import agricultural inputs such as urea.

“So far in the conflict there are losses of about $100 million for the export sector,” said Prado, and it is estimated that by the end of the year the negative effects could reach about $1 billion.

President Guillermo Lasso, in an interview broadcast from the Government Palace, said that “compensation measures are being analyzed that will sustain production, employment and generate hope, because this (war) will be transitory”.

He added that he has asked China “to help compensate for the loss of the Russian market. We are talking... about bananas, flowers and other products. For China that is absolutely manageable.” He indicated that a first response was an offer of urea, which could lead to an eventual exchange.

While Ecuadorian producers are going through critical moments, which led to protests from banana producers' guilds that blocked roads the day before to demand that the government declare an emergency in that sector and measures such as the purchase of production that cannot be sold to those markets, which was discarded from immediately by the Lasso administration.

Regarding the negotiations aimed at signing a free trade agreement with Mexico, Prado said that they are well advanced and that by the end of March a delegation from that country is expected to arrive in Quito for the last round of negotiations, which would allow the presidents of both countries to sign the document in May.

This treaty will not only open the possibility of doubling a binational exchange that reaches 180 million dollars, but it will open the doors for Ecuador to submit its formal application to join the Pacific Alliance - made up of Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru and other associated countries - which number nearly 220 million inhabitants with a Gross Domestic Product estimated at $2,128 million.

Prado added that by the end of the year Ecuador also hopes to close a new treaty, this time with South Korea.