It’s Sunday evening and the election results are starting to take shape. Whoever governs must focus on several national goals: citizen security, employment and fiscal solvency, in the face of a society that longs to leave social and political polarization behind. How to address them from a government with limited capacity for political management, with a deficit budget and with little available time?

To attack the causes of citizens’ insecurity, the next government can do a lot, but it requires deep legal reforms to transform the justice system. The commitment of other government bodies with a program of goals, plans and short-term programs is needed. Get them to share this goal and twist the arm of the political polarization in which part of Ecuador is being discussed, despite the calculations of the situation and the egos of the leaders.

The future government needs investment in technology to make it harder for drugs consumed by the first world to transit through Ecuador; bring the work of the National Police to a new level of efficiency and reliability; regain control over rehabilitation centers, etc. But this will not be enough without transforming the justice system. A transformation that ensures honest and courageous prosecutors and judges, who can carry out investigations and punishments related to the law without the risk of losing their lives. To achieve this, the risks of judicial capture must be eliminated; simplify and make judicial processes transparent and guarantee the privacy and security of judicial employees.

The next government must prevent employment figures from continuing to adjust due to migration and informality. Build with the private sector, from business to community, plans to improve productivity, effectively articulate with markets (suppliers and buyers) and bridges to access international finance. Focus on sectors with high growth potential in the short term, supporting aggressive strategies to increase sales. Provide maximum efficiency and transparency to trade channels of the internal market, for the benefit of producers and consumers. Materialize the benefits of the signed trade agreements and insist on the approval of the IDEA law in the USA, for the benefit of our exports, pressed by an unfavorable world environment. Because only successful companies are able to pay taxes.

The next government will have to achieve new levels of efficiency and effectiveness of fiscal spending. Serve more and better with less money. Simplify structures, processes and services based on technology, private participation and aggressive decentralization and deconcentration of budget power. In the latter, there is a new opportunity to build deep reforms working with the new State Assembly.

That Ecuador has integrating political, social and business leadership. Able to build a common vision that aligns the powers of the state around essential and urgent national goals. (OR)