Ecuador achieved in 2022 the signing of contracts to invest $3.2 billion in business projects that offer to generate 15,000 jobs. The most recent ones materialized in the last days of December with four companies, two of them from the mining sector, which has become one of the main export products.
The Canadian company Adventus Mining will invest $292 million for the Curipamba mining project, in the province of Bolívar. This is a public company focused on the development and exploration of copper and gold projects in Ecuador and also has a portfolio of exploration projects in Ireland. “After a feasibility study, it will strengthen the responsible and sustainable production of gold, silver and copper,” said the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investment and Fisheries.
In investment contracts are the expectations to generate employment
Another $42 million will come from the Canadian mining company Solaris Resource for exploration activities as part of the Warintza project in the province of Morona Santiago, a project that is estimated to generate 3,000 jobs once the construction phase begins. This contract was reached after a year of negotiations and is the result of the Ecuador Open for Business, an event that served as a showcase for the country to show its business portfolio for $30,000 million.
“One of the most important issues that we are seeing in the mining sector is that it is quickly becoming one of the main non-traditional export sectors of the country, it is already becoming the third or fourth export product in the world until the end of this year. Ecuador, this generates foreign currency, taxes in our country and more importantly, it generates development for the areas of influence of the projects”, indicated the minister Julio José Prado.
These contracts and two more from the banana and tourism sectors were signed this Thursday, December 22, and total more than $361 million. There, in addition to the Curipamba and Warintza mining projects, the construction of an industrial plant for recycling agricultural plastic waste from the banana sector and the operation of an expedition cruise in the Galapagos Islands by Marventura, which signed a contract for $19 million to that project.
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The Ministry of Production highlights the global figure: “With the impulse of the Government of the Meeting, in these 18 months of administration, investments have reached more than $7,200 million. In 2022, 169 investment contracts for $3,199 million were approved, with the commitment to generate 15,000 direct jobs during the period in which the projects are executed.” Added to this amount is $491 million for investment increase addenda, as well as $1,887 of pending applications.
For the State portfolio, this shows that the investment attraction policy has a positive echo in the economic recovery.
In 2021, 67 investment contracts were signed for $6,089 million, almost tripling the year 2020 of the pandemic, which registered $2,356 million in this type of contract, but below 2019, which reached $6,885 million, according to the figures presented. by Minister Julio José Prado, who considers that the results of the current Government are a historical figure that points to the generation of quality employment and strengthening of the productive engine.
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And it is that he compares the administration of Guillermo Lasso with previous years: “In 18 months more investment contracts were signed than in the last eight years.” Between 2021 and 2022, investments of $7,235 million were committed, while between 2013 and 2020 they were $7,113 million.
The Ministry of Production remains in the line of attracting greater local and foreign investment to the country, and one way is these investment contracts that give tax benefits to companies, in order to boost local economies and generate new jobs for national scale. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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