With an approximate investment of $10 million DP World Posorja advances in the construction of the first phase of the Logistics and Industrial Park Under the modality ZEDE (Special Economic Development Zone)located next to the Deep Water Port in Posorja (Guayas).
The progress of the project, which will be built on 119 hectares, was verified this Tuesday morning by Julio José Prado, Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheriesdirectors of DP World Posorja and potential investors, some of them foreigners.
And it is that the construction of this new concept, according to DP World Posorja, the first in the country, already attracts the attention of national and foreign industries that are looking for spaces in this area destined to the development of activities related to the logistics and distribution of goods and products, manufacturing, assembly and industrial processes, and support services.
Two ports try to compete with logistics and industrial zones with tax exemption
One of the stakeholders is the Government of South Korea, which according to Luis Eduardo Pérez, commercial director of DP Worldhas set aside 42 hectares in this new area for the establishment of companies and industries from that country.
In addition, there are already interested companies at the moment, one of these is posorlogis, a logistics operator specialized in managing ZEDE operations, revealed Carlos Merino, CEO of DP World, who assured that currently the industrial park has a work progress of 30% and one of its main attractions and benefits is its direct connection with the Deep Water Port, which will allow companies that operate in the park to have improvements competitive.
Present at the event were Sung Hun Yang, CEO of Kotra Quito (a state-funded trade and investment promotion organization operated by the South Korean government), and Wilfried Meinlschmidt, representative of Posorlogis.
Meanwhile, Merino assured that this first phase would be completed in the fourth quarter of this year. He also highlighted that DP World has the due qualification as administrator of the Posorja ZEDE for 50 years.
“Approximately $10 million is the investment for the first phase, at a total level it is $60 million and on that we are going to trigger the subsequent phases based on the demand,” explained Merino, who added that the first phase comprises 3,000 m2 of warehouses.
He added that there is also a backup area of around 10,000 m2 more “so that clients who require it can come and settle in,” added the CEO of DP World, who assured that they plan to activate the second phase of the project in 2024.
“We reinforce our investment and development commitment, which we are proud to fulfill. The legal soundness of a country guarantees the sustainability and success of these projects”, said Merino.
For his part, Prado highlighted the possibilities offered by the project to attract investment, especially taking into account the future trade agreements that Ecuador hopes to close this year.
In this sense, he revealed that within two weeks the last round of negotiations for the trade agreement with Mexico will take place, and they hope to close the negotiations for the trade agreements with China and South Korea by the end of this year.
Regarding the latter, he regretted that the progress of the talks has remained only up to 10%, because they were paralyzed for six years, but assured that the commitment with South Korea is to have the negotiations of the agreement completed by the end of this year.
“This year, in 2022, we will have a trade agreement with Mexico, South Korea and China,” said Prado, who added that they will continue to seek trade agreements with the United States, Panama, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Canada, a country with which they hope to start conversations.
He also stressed that the Government seeks to provide legal certainty to potential investors in projects such as the one promoted by DP World with the Investment Law that is being processed in the National Assembly, which Prado hopes will be successfully completed in the next two days.
The minister defended the content of the law, which he classified as a technical regulation.
He specified that they traveled to different countries, such as Colombia, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica and others in the region, to collect the best experiences on issues such as the stock market and free zones, to apply them in Ecuador.
Regarding the ZEDE, the minister explained that there are three operations in the country: that of DP World, in Posorja, and those of Contecon (Simón Bolívar Maritime Port of Guayaquil) and the Polytechnic School of the Coast (Espol), on which he highlighted that its success is due to the management of the private sector.
Contecon will promote a special development zone with an industrial and logistics focus next to the port of Guayaquil
“These three ZEDEs are in the process of development, but the most advanced without a doubt is that of DP World in the Deep Water Port, what we have here is an example of where we want to go, to have ZEDEs that start, that attract foreign direct investment and that they also begin to connect with local companies to start exporting and generate more logistics and also more production,” Prado said.
Regarding the practices that they collected from other countries, Prado revealed that they are summarized in having incentives of the size and level that those countries have at the international level and that investments have a private vision.
“That is to say, that it is not the politician on duty who has to test free zones and that they simply remain in the territory, that they remain in space, but well developed,” said Prado, who acknowledged that there have already been failed cases such as the ZEDE of the Pacific Refinery and the Yachay Refinery, which according to Prado failed because they were public political initiatives and did not have private support.
Source: Eluniverso
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