The counselor says that Ecuador has all the potential to attract investment, but certain aspects must be analyzed, such as the paperwork.
Roberto Salas Guzman collaborates with the government of President Guillermo Lasso since last August What adviser to honor investment and public-private partnerships. The appointment was made through executive decree 150.
He has participated in a hundred meetings, some with investors, others with multilateral banks. From time to time he talks with Lasso, with whom he has known for several years.
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He says that Ecuador has all the potential to attract investment, but certain aspects must be analyzed, such as the paperwork.
When did your rapprochement with President Guillermo Lasso begin until you reached the appointment as investment advisor?
I met the president a few years ago, because we had some projects, initiatives, we shared some affinities, which is working within the private company. He from his functions at the Bank (Guayaquil), I from the group he was leading at that time in Ecuador. We met and a relationship more professional than personal was built, and when I left in 1999 (abroad), every time I came I visited Guillermo like other people … At the beginning of 2019, when I closed my international career, I came with everyone The desire to contribute to the country with all my experience, came the invitation of the president, which is irrefutable. So, for me, it was very important to accept this challenge.
In accordance with executive decree 150, it will be in charge not only of advising the president, but also of recommending best practices to promote investment and other actions. But what is the main function?
Be an interlocutor and channel of investors, who are interested in investing in Ecuador, mainly in the public area … through investment with the participation of the private sector. So, for that, a strategy had to be made, which is to bring the best practices that may exist worldwide so that investments, through a public-private partnership, can be successful.
What work have you done during these three months of management?
We have been able to achieve visits, attend to investors, mainly foreign, who are already in Ecuador because they are interested in entering the country in order not only to maintain interest but to increase investments through the generation of trust, openness and explanation of the large opportunities that Ecuador is providing. In addition, we have been able to have an important approach with multilateral banking, which has welcomed us in an extraordinary way such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), the World Bank and other international institutions to establish mechanisms of financing, not only for long-term projects, but also to help us establish studies and structure projects that allow us to generate a more robust portfolio than the country has normally had until now. This has allowed us more than 100 meetings and it has been possible to establish a scheme of trust and interest in investment firms, to make decisions in the coming months and years.
Of the contributions you have made, are some or not in the urgent bill for Economic Development and Fiscal Sustainability?
There is something important in the definition of the strategy, it is that Ecuador has to improve the institutional framework and its level of regulations and the management and execution capacities. On the institutional side, the best world practices require that in a public investment strategy, through the participation of the private sector, the fact that there is a management unit is essential, which begins with generating the capacities to design and structure projects. robust because they are the ones that ultimately interest an investor. There is a second element to improve the regulatory level and a third element is to give the State management capacity, not only a new secretariat or a ministry, but also capacity so that these projects can flow with better coordination. In these three areas we have tried to make very specific proposals, some of these are included in this law, which was incorporated as urgent and other elements will be incorporated in the next laws.
Do the axes have an established deadline for compliance?
The institutional creation scheme is short-term, depends on a budgetary issue and is advancing with a positive predisposition given the urgency and the need to generate that level of investment that is expected. And the best regulatory, first with technical tables that allow feedback from groups that are interested in this type of scheme, which we hope will be completed this year. And from December until next year, the idea is to take the projects that the country is generating, at the public investment level, and put them on a platform that allows us to manage results and begin to be visible.
How often do you meet with the Executive?
They are periodic meetings, the first month we took care of structuring the strategy and we had a meeting with the president and the entire staff and the most strategic part was approved. Then it was defined that we should establish a portfolio of projects and it has been evolving and at this point we are going to present it at the Open for Business, where the entire Presidency team has been supporting and ministries, especially that of Production.
Who are the investors with whom you have spoken, from which countries do they come?
All the contacts we have made have a very high relevance, but I can say that we have had a very good acceptance. Not only from investors, multilateral banking, but from investment banking. We have had contact with embassies, production chambers, Ecuador Development Bank (BDE).
What is the investor’s perception of Ecuador?
There are very good experiences and others are not. There are certain investors who have had to insist that they bet on a new management capacity, with much more openness, and above all with an interest in giving more agility to the evolution of the project approval processes. And today I have received a very positive feedback in some cases and also many investors who have been quite exhausted due to the effects of the paperwork, lack of response, in other cases.
What we have been able to see is that all schemes can have solutions. They are not easy because this not only requires a technical scheme, but also to improve regulatory matters, such as, for example, setting deadlines in the approval instances of a project.
What are the areas with the greatest potential?
There are areas that have been prioritized, especially by the government plan, and it has to do with the hydrocarbon scheme, renewable and unconventional energies, and mining. These four sectors represent more than 60% of investment opportunities. And there are other important elements. The country’s housing solutions housing program is important, also in the world of telecommunications. And we hope to continue implementing strategic initiatives and projects such as the health and safety area. (I)
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