The management and maintenance of the manta airportthe improvement of Esmeraldas port and the construction of the so-called ‘Fifth Bridge’ of Guayaquil are some of the infrastructure projects that the Government of Ecuador contemplates carrying out to tender under the modality of public-private associations (PPP).
This was announced this Thursday by the Secretary of Public-Private Investments of Ecuador, Pablo Cevallos, during a meeting with members of the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Quito, where he extolled the advantages of the new PPP law to advance the project portfolio, currently focused solely on infrastructure.
Cevallos stressed that the Manta airport is in “immediate growth” with the connection already recovered with the Galapagos Islands and the route operated by the Copa airline with Panama City and which will be expanded with more frequencies.
The Secretary of Public-Private Investments also highlighted that the new airport terminal is already completed and in the final delivery procedures, which will facilitate the studies for this project, with an investment yet to be defined.
Meanwhile, he pointed out that the port of Esmeraldas is the natural outlet for the mining material that is extracted from the Andean province of Imbabura, so it needs adaptation to receive these goods and dredging, works that require an estimated investment of approximately 109 millions of dollars.
The Public-Private Investment Secretariat also manages a series of road construction projects that total 834 kilometers, equivalent to 8.1% of the state road network, which has 10,285 kilometers.
Among these projects, the South Viaduct of Guayaquil, also known as the ‘Fifth Bridge’ of the port city, stands out with an investment of more than 700 million dollars, with a section of about 48 kilometers to direct heavy traffic arriving from the south. directly to the port.
Cevallos hoped to do a good study and sit down with the local governments to overcome the differences that arose in previous months with the Guayaquil authorities regarding which administration should take the initiative for the work.
The official acknowledged that the high values of Ecuador’s risk premium make access to financing difficult, but he hoped to be able to find non-refundable funds from multilateral entities to carry out the studies.
Likewise, he emphasized that all the projects in this portfolio are “country projects” that receive the support of the national government and that the new regulations have procedures to avoid repeating bad experiences of PPPs in other countries in the region. EFE
#Manta #Airport #Esmeraldas #Port #Bridge #Guayaquil #publicprivate #partnerships
