Quito –
The continuity of good relations with the US, in the midst of its recent change of government, as well as with the main multilateral organizations, which finance various programs to support the most vulnerable sectors, is the main result of the visit made by the president of the Republic, Lenín Moreno, from January 25 to 29 to Washington.
Within this framework, securing the financing of family protection bonds, unemployment, as well as the promise of being able to access financing for vaccines would be important issues within the context of the pandemic. The delegation with which Moreno traveled held meetings at the highest level, both with representatives of Congress and the multilaterals. From all of them he received support for his management.
According to Jaime Carrera, executive secretary of the Fiscal Policy Observatory (OPF), in general terms the predisposition of multilaterals to support the country is positive both in the matter of financing aid to the most vulnerable sectors affected by the pandemic and in the possibility of accessing financing for vaccines against COVID-19.
Indeed, Mauricio Claver-Carone, president of the Inter-American Development Bank, has said: “The priority is the issue of vaccines. We have reallocated $ 1 billion that is to help countries with acquisition, distribution and warehousing. Ecuador is one of the six countries with which we are working very closely ”.
However, for Carrera it would be important for the Government to clarify more precisely from which agencies these credits will come for the financing of bonds and how exactly the process of access to financing of vaccines would be. Additionally, according to Carrera, the process also goes through a budget adjustment, which should be made transparent.
It is that the Government has spoken, in the framework of this visit, of an unemployment relief bonus. This is the delivery of $ 500 to 570,000 families who lost their jobs in a dependency relationship and who were affiliated with the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security. In addition, two additional phases of the Family Protection Bonus will be activated, which will benefit 480,000 Ecuadorian families. He also said that he will reinstate 10,000 families who stopped paying the Rural Social Security and will cover the payments corresponding to their affiliation during the next three years. “Between January and March of this year we will incorporate 225,000 families into the Protection Network.”
For Carrera, in this difficult economic moment in the country and in the world, it is key to deliver this aid to the low-income population or those who have lost their jobs, since it helps governance, allows the economy to reactivate and, being financed, does not generate deficit problems.
According to Augusto de la Torre, former chief economist for Latin America at the World Bank and current member of the Government’s Economic Advisory Council, the support obtained by Ecuador from several US congressmen belonging to both parties is remarkable. It is a recognition, he says, of the current government’s efforts to regain freedoms and independence of functions. This type of support can also benefit the country in matters of cooperation with economic growth, the trade agreement, intellectual property issues, among others.
De la Torre also highlights that the issue of economic aid was already part of the economic program with the IMF; However, these unemployment relief were not written, but they pay to the policy of aid focused on the people most affected by the pandemic.
Moreno’s meeting with the managing director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, also went on good terms. The resources provided by the IMF in 2020 “have allowed us to level the public account; it has allowed us to give money to people who lost their jobs and to those who are in danger of going hungry. And Ecuador will hardly forget it, ”highlighted President Moreno. Georgieva said that Lenín Moreno is someone “with the strength to do not what is easy, but what is right.”
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