The urgent economic project for attracting investments, strengthening the stock market and digital transformation went to second debate, when there are eleven days left before the deadline for the National Assembly to approve or deny the Executive’s initiative.
The legislature met this Sunday, March 13, to process this text, which received several criticisms and also support for the proposal. While the Union for Hope (UNES) and Pachakutik caucuses warned that it is a privatization project, the government represented in the National Accord Caucus stressed the importance of approving this project; The Christian Social Party (PSC) also announced its support for the project, while the Democratic Left bloc (ID) was divided in its speeches.
The project seeks to ensure a regulatory framework that accelerates public investment with private participation, encourages the development of job-creating investments in multiple sectors of the economy, in addition to increasing and promoting national industrialization and exportable supply.
Casinos in free zones, one of the ideas proposed for the Investment Law that awaits its first debate in the plenary session of the Assembly
To promote investment, according to the Executive’s approach, procedures, processes and regulatory obstacles will be simplified, the adoption of digital technologies in the provision of public services and management of administrative procedures will also be encouraged.
A rethinking of the scheme of public-private associations is proposed, through the delegation scheme and the risk is distributed between the State and the service provider.
Free zones are established as a destination for investments, in manufacturing, technology or logistics areas.
Daniel Noboa (EU), president of the Economic Development Commission, highlighted this law seeks to attract investment in multiple sectors, which does not seek privatization, but to encourage more investment projects by promoting the provision of quality public services.
The intention of the legislative table is not to promote privatization, affirmed Noboa, who insisted that the central idea is to generate employment and give the opportunity to private companies so that, together with the State, they generate better services for citizens. That this was the fundamental criticism of the Unión por la Esperanza and Pachakutik caucuses. Health, safety and education can never be privatized, he reiterated.
Regarding the establishment of free zones, Noboa said that there will be ten years of exemption from income tax and that as of year 11 it will operate with a reduction of up to 10% of income tax until year 20, the zero rate of VAT in the acquisition of goods and services.
He said that this law does not have to be governmental or of the citizen revolution, but of the Ecuadorians for the Ecuadorians; this law has to be of the 137 assembly members, and that it is the responsibility of the legislators to improve it.
The vice president of the Development Commission, Wilma Andrade (ID), stressed that the delegation for the participation of the private sector in public issues is constitutional, but that to avoid an excessive use of that delegation, the legislative table included an express provision where it is clarified that it will not be possible through delegation to transfer the assets, patrimony or assets of the State.
And since the administration and management of health, education and security issues can be delegated, according to Andrade, the Development Commission included a lock where the prohibition of collection of contributions, fees or rates for services is contemplated, considering that the Constitution guarantees free.
The delegate of the ID, before the table that studies the urgent project, affirmed that this law is not only for the central government, but also for the Decentralized Autonomous Governments (Gads), that when they do not have resources they can delegate to the private sector and in this way carry out the infrastructure for the benefit of the city.
He insisted that this law is not privatizing, and that to avoid this misinterpretation, locks and prohibitions have been put in place.
But his co-ideator, Ramiro Narváez (ID), stated that the bill that reforms 18 regulatory bodies has nothing to do with investments, the only thing that makes it clear is that it is one more step to consolidate a neoliberal model in the country. Which is the third law that reaches the Assembly with these characteristics.
He said that again, in this law, it is intended to eliminate the 1% that telephone operators have to pay on their income to invest in innovation and technologies. What does this have to do with promoting investment, he asked.
Nathalie Arias (BAN), announced that the Executive’s project expects to attract investments of $30,000 million through the implementation of public and private alliances, the establishment of free zones and the strengthening of the stock market. Another criterion that should also be analyzed is the incorporation of Ecuador into the Pacific alliance, that is, the possibility that Ecuadorian products have an infinity of destinations.
Regarding public-private alliances, he pointed out that some requirements are eliminated to simplify the processes. Regarding the delegation, he said that the concept was reinforced in the law so that there is no doubt that there is a spirit of privatization and that there is no charge for services such as health and education. The text was also perfected in the law so that the Gads can delegate.
Esteban Torres, coordinator of the PSC, said that the State must guarantee legal and physical security to attract investment, as well as transparency and reduction of public spending.
He regretted that this investment project comes after a law that applied taxes that does not send attractive messages when a wealth tax is included, which is a contradiction that should be corrected.
Mario Ruiz Jácome and Mireya Pazmiño, legislators from the rebel wing of Pachakutik, questioned the Executive’s proposal, since in their opinion it brings with it the so-called delegations, which in other words is privatization of the public sectors.
Ruiz said that the project that modifies 18 laws contravenes what is stated in 136 of the Constitution and that the only thing the government promotes is privatization and does not strengthen tourism as alternatives to generate resources.
From the UNES bench, Sofía Espín, warned that through the figure of the delegation, through public-private alliances, established as a rule and not as an exception, they intend to delegate the operation and maintenance of all public services provided by the State and deliver them into private hands such as prisons, hospitals, health services, among others.
They want to delegate it, in fine words, but in the end it is to privatize it, lease it and sell it all, that is the intention, said Espín, which is openly unconstitutional. He warned that with this law a wave of layoffs is coming in the public sector, under the figure of delegation.
The bill will return to the Economic Development Commission for the preparation of the report for a second debate. The term to approve the urgent project expires on March 24. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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