Due to lack of consensus, the bill to attract investment will not be approved after the second and final debate on March 22. The vote is expected to take place on the same day that the Ecuadorian soccer team plays for its qualification for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, in Paraguay, on March 24.
The official Juan Fernando Flores commented that the idea is that the plenary session of the legislature debates this Tuesday the report proposal for the second debate and then returns to the Economic Development Commission to collect the observations and on Thursday it is put to the vote; that is to say, the last day of the term that Parliament has for its approval.
Urgent investment project enters final debate without sufficient vote support
Flores is optimistic about finding the votes, since he said that precisely one more day will be given so that some texts that have been requested by various benches can be incorporated in order to support the Government’s initiative that will attract investments and generate sources of employment. “There is an intention of the benches to vote in favor, then there would be the environment that will allow approval,” he stressed.
However, in the Pachakutik sector the division of criteria around supporting the project is maintained. The legislator for Cañar, Joel Abad, commented: After an analysis “we have seen that it is a bill that does hit the interests of the middle class and the people again, in the sense that these investments favor transnationals more. and the big companies”.
He indicated that the way out of this bill is filing and presenting an alternative project, and he does not rule out that the Legislature can present a new proposal on the subject of investments in which a balance is promoted.
Abad recalled that most countries that have managed their mines and oil without concessions and without foreign companies have come out ahead, for example, he said, Chile, and what is intended in Ecuador with this law is to favor transnationals. That the majority of Pachakutik assembly members agree on the file of the urgent project and that will be reflected in the vote, he affirmed.
The Union for Hope (UNES) caucus, which has 48 votes, announced that the caucus will not support the proposed investment law. “We believe that through the delegations they try to carry out a camouflaged privatization of public institutions and services, and they want to strengthen the work of the banking system,” commented legislator Ronny Aleaga.
The Guayas representative stated that despite the number of proposals that his caucus has made for the project, they are not satisfied with the report approved for the second debate, which is why the Union for Hope has decided not to support the project.
He indicated that the Government says that it will bring, with this law, some $30,000 million, but nothing is known in what way, countries, companies and what emblematic works are going to be built with those resources.
Esteban Torres, coordinator of the PSC block, said that the law is not bad, that it needs clarifications, corrections and improvements, that they have presented observations on the project and that these were accepted in the report for the second debate, therefore they support the text.
He commented that there are spaces to achieve 70 votes, and for this it will be necessary to see the position of Pachakutik, which is ideological on this issue, unlike the Democratic Left, which is more balanced. For the good of the country, it would be necessary to find those consensuses and vote for the law that is not negative, Torres affirmed.
The Democratic Left, according to its coordinator Marlon Cadena, evaluated the positive and negative points of the project, and that the party leadership is concerned that this bill under construction will not support job creation, nor are the disinvestments focused on benefit from the country.
The exact definition of not supporting or voting abstention on the bill is still under discussion, Cadena said, adding that they are still reviewing the last observations suggested by the ID, but they were not included in the report. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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