In the last five months of 2023, from July until today, the Government signed 17 investment contracts worth about 879 million dollars, the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries reported officially. That, plus what was generated in the first half of the year, from January to June, $872 million with also 17 signed contracts, results in a total amount of $1,751 million.

This is a significantly lower figure than the one reached in just the first six months of 2022, which amounted to 2,796 million dollars. That year, he closed 3.201 million dollars of investment contracts, the largest amount in the last ten years in that area. The lowest year was 2017 with $78 million, according to official data.

The construction of an artificial fertilizer factory and twenty other projects for investment in Ecuador were agreed upon

On July 11, the Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investment and Fisheries, Daniel Legarda, projected that close to $2,000 million worth of contracts are planned to be signed in the coming months; and on September 29, he stated that the State Portfolio is processing 69 requests for investment contracts.

These were the amounts of investment contracts signed since 2012:

Meanwhile, the last contracts the ministry signed and reported on were on November 14, when it announced more than $30 million in the signing of four investment contracts.

“The companies that have signed investment contracts are in the agro-industrial production, palm oil and textile sectors. “Their investment is mainly for the renovation of the production line, the renovation of machines, the purchase of land for the expansion of the factory and the increase of production for export,” explained the ministry when asked by the newspaper. The largest of the contracts in recent months was the one signed last August with the Canadian mining company Dundee Precious Metals (DPM), worth 419 million dollars, in the Cristal concession, which is part of the Loma Larga project, located in the province of Azuay.

Meanwhile, 97.9% of contracts signed during the first half of 2023 were in the oil and mining, construction and real estate, manufacturing and basic supplies, and telecommunications sectors. For example, $457 million was signed in oil and mining, $163 million in construction and real estate, $155 million in manufacturing, $78 million in utilities and telecommunications, and $16 million in transportation and storage.

Canadian mining company Dundee Precious Metals will invest $419 million in the Cristal concession for the Loma Larga project in Azuay

In addition to 17 signed contracts from January to June, eight were with domestic companies (18%), six were with foreign companies (45%), and three were mixed companies (37%).

Meanwhile, from May 2021 to June 2023, the period during which Julio José Prado remained the previous minister of this state portfolio, almost 7,000 million dollars were signed in 240 investment contracts, the former official stated in his final balance sheet.

Why do companies sign investment contracts?

The ministry explains that the investment agreement is a tool that provides legal certainty to companies making a new investment in Ecuador. This contract is perfected through a public act that establishes the treatment that will be approved under the Environmental Code of Production, Trade and Investment and establishes the contractual obligations necessary for its development.

In addition to legal stability, signing an investment agreement with the Ecuadorian government gives companies access to national or international arbitration and tax incentives such as: