With six votes in favor, the Economic Development Commission approved this March 17 the report for the second and final debate on the bill to attract investment, strengthen the stock market and digital transformation, which will be processed in the plenary session of the National Assembly It is expected next Monday.
Despite the approval, no one guarantees that there will be at least 70 votes in favor of approving the Executive’s proposal, which is intended to attract and encourage investment in multiple sectors of the economy, as well as foster job creation, promote efficiency in markets, construction and regulatory improvement, and also, the simplification and adoption of digital media and technologies in administrative procedures.
Political environment of the National Assembly puts at risk approval of urgent investment law
In addition to the majority report, legislator John Vinueza (Ecuadorian Union), presented a minority report and it is not ruled out that the delegate of the Union for Hope (UNES) bench, Carlos Zambrano, does the same.
The political position of Pachakutik and UNES, which voted against the majority report, harbors the possibility that this project will not be approved in plenary, because both sectors, if they vote organically, gather 73 votes, but the political negotiations between factions continue.
Daniel Noboa, president of the legislative table, commented that although the report was approved with six votes, that does not guarantee that the project will be approved in plenary, that the fight continues and for this, as rapporteur of the law, he will meet with all legislative caucuses to secure at least 70 votes needed to pass the law.
He said that he will especially sit down to talk with the benches that voted against the report, such as Pachakutik, UNES, and Assemblyman John Vinueza. “I believe that an agreement must be reached, it is the responsibility of the plenary session, of the 137 legislators, to pass a law that generates employment that generates investments and that improves the reality of Ecuador,” Noboa stressed.
He stated that the project was highly modified, where 80% of the observations of the UNES caucus, 70% of the Democratic Left caucus, as well as the Social Christian Party caucus, are accepted, for which it becomes a multiparty law; and although the President of the Republic had the initiative, the Assembly will improve the proposal, he said.
He clarified that the project blocks any privatization initiative, that even in article 7 of the project a lock was included where it is determined that “it is prohibited in the contractual modality of delegation through public-private associations, to privatize or dispose of assets or public infrastructure or State, new or existing.
He reiterated that the State cannot delegate areas that the Constitution does not allow, such as health, safety, education, and the user cannot be charged, since gratuity must prevail.
Francisco Jiménez (BAN), commented that none of those who voted in favor can say that the report includes 100% of their proposals, but that the six legislators who supported agree that it is a positive project for the country, that it is a tool that can improve the regulatory framework of public-private alliances, the stock market and generate digital transformation and the scheme of free zones.
He also warned that the approval of the report in the commission is only the first part of this game, that the second is to be played in the plenary session of the National Assembly where the logic is different.
He clarified that there should be no fear that this law will privatize the country, because in the final part of article 6 of the project an article was inserted to avoid any type of interpretation that this could lead to a privatization scenario, therefore, “ there is no possibility that a privatization scenario could take place”, he reiterated.
Legislator John Vinueza of the Ecuadorian Union (EU) movement explained that he presented a minority report because the proposal contains many issues that need a much deeper analysis, and that at the end of the debate at the table he could notice that no padlocks are placed that “this delivery of services and public goods is needed for the administration of the private, since the delegations are to deliver the administration of public goods to the private”.
He stressed that the delivery of public goods and services to the private sector has no limits in the project, because the administration of water, genetic wealth, biodiversity can be delivered.
Another of the facts that motivated his report is that public services can be delegated with a simple statement, and they can decide without prior socialization and acceptance of the public entity whether or not they want to go to private hands.
The legislator of UNES, Paola Cabezas, said that the caucus will meet over the weekend, but she anticipated that some articles are of concern because the project proposes a total transformation of the system and is opposed to the Constitution regarding public-private partnerships, for that, he advanced that the position that is matured in his bench is to vote against the project.
Cabezas stated that the law would enable the sale of the entire public sector, under the foreign investment discourse. “This law opens the possibility of privatizing everything, including health and education. The law grants a letter of marque to anyone who comes to invest, but there are no legal guarantees for the country to have an advantage over investments,” said the national representative. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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