Appearances begin on investment law in the Economic Development Commission

This Later, within the Economic Development Commission, the official appearances on the draft Investment and Employment Generation Law began, which should be discussed during this month in the National Assembly. The main government authorities who are promoting the approval of the law attended the first session: Julio José Prado, Minister of Production; the Minister of Economy, Simón Cueva; the secretary of Public-Private Associations, Roberto Salas; and the Cabinet Undersecretary, Francisco Briones. They explained the key points of the law.

The issue of the need for investment was presented by Julio José Prado, who gave figures on how neighboring countries have received important items of foreign investment, while Ecuador remains behind them. He also explained how the free zones and special development zones would work: their location, production material and investment amounts will be private initiatives approved by an inter-institutional committee. The zones may be single-company and multi-company, and may deal with logistics, industrial and service issues.

the minister Cueva referred to the changes in the stock markets and the institutional change in the control of the sector, which would now pass to the Superintendency of Banks. There will be more controls on risk rating agencies. He ratified that it seeks to modernize the local stock exchanges and that international stock exchanges can also participate in the country.

Roberto Salas, for his part, recounted the law regarding public-private partnerships (PPPs) that can be made on service issues. For Salas, the important thing is that with this model risks can be transferred to the private sector. Also, he said, it becomes less bureaucratic, since the steps to create a PPP are reduced from 20 to 15.

In this first instance, there were some observations by the members of the Commission.

César Rohon, an independent, considered that the regulations are positive and said that they can be perfected. However, he clarified that this law is not talking about privatizations, rather, delegations and public-private associations are sought.

John Vinueza, from the Ecuadorian Union movement, criticized the law, saying that in practice everything is being privatized. He asked if Colegio Mejía or Universidad Central could be privatized or delegated. He commented that the sandbox modality (facilities for fintech) could be a hotbed for virtual Don Nazas. He already asked to eliminate article 7, which talks about exemptions for the president to delegate in exceptional cases, because this exposes the country to relying on the good faith of the authorities. For Vinueza, locks must be generated for many topics.

Byron Maldonado, invited assemblyman, confirmed that it is not a question of privatization. He requested that the law be deepened on issues of territorial equity and renewable energy.

The session was chaired by Wilma Andrade, who requested that an official of the Executive be delegated, permanently, so that he can remain in the discussions every day in order to answer his technical concerns. He agreed that article 7 must be rethought. Finally, he asked for a high-level debate and that there are no false comments about the alleged privatization of assets.