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Lenín Moreno highlights in China a record of $ 17,000 million in investment
Posted On 12 Dec 2018
Ecuadornews:
This year China was the fourth destination of Ecuadorian non-oil exports with $ 765 million, and the second in the Asian continent. Meanwhile, Chinese production and exports to Ecuador have also strengthened, for example, in the automotive sector, which grew 230% in 2017.
These were some figures that were shared on Tuesday at the Ecuador-China Business Forum that took place in Beijing and was inaugurated by the President of the Republic, Lenin Moreno, who arrived in that country as part of an international tour that also covers Qatar, in search of attracting investments for Ecuador.
Me acompaña una importante delegación empresarial ecuatoriana a China. Como Gobierno, vamos a facilitar su crecimiento. Por eso es vital que Ecuador y China sean socios estratégicos. #GiraOficialEcu 🇪🇨 🇨🇳 pic.twitter.com/Au6aJkwRV0
— Lenín Moreno (@Lenin) 11 de diciembre de 2018
Before dozens of Chinese businessmen and officials, Moreno stressed that in this year Ecuador received a record in foreign investment for more than $ 17,000 million.
Of that amount, he specified that $ 10,300 million correspond to 137 new investment contracts that private companies signed with the Government and highlighted the benefits received by new investments through the Law of Productive Development and urged businessmen to ‘take advantage of’ them.
“Forus, investment and the attraction of capital are State policy … Ecuador is today a country of opportunities, take advantage of them!”, Said the president, adding that 144 Chinese companies work and invest in Ecuador.
Before the Forum, Moreno met with the president of the Chinese Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Gao Yang. In the dialogue they evaluated the possibilities of increasing mutual trade.
In this framework, Ecuador would bring a proposal to China to conclude a partials cope commercial agreement.
At the moment the non-oil trade balance between both countries is negative for Ecuador. According to the Central Bank and Pro Ecuador, from January to August,$ 618 million was exported to China, but the Asian country imported $ 2,369million to Ecuador.
Regarding external debt with China, to October it stood at $ 6.5 billion. Due to the advance sale of oil with Chinese firms and one Thai, the obligation is $ 660million. This, after the country paid in early September $ 266.6 million of aloan granted in 2011 by the Development Bank of China and avoided paying $ 9.34million in interest.
The anticipated sale of crude oil to China has been questioned and even former president Rafael Correa has been called by the prosecution to give his version on it. (I)
