Minister Duarte responds Mayor Nebot on port dilemma

Minister of Transport and Public Works, Maria de los Angeles Duarte

Last night, the Minister of Transport and Public Works, Maria de los Angeles Duarte, said on television that the seaport of Guayaquil will remain in the Gulf, but in a new location where it has no problems for the draft of ships and logistics.

Duarte answered the statement, also televised, that was broadcast on Wednesday night by the mayor of Guayaquil, Jaime Nebot. Who stated the concern about this change regarding the location of the port and intends not allow the Posorja project to be funded by private companies.

Duarte said the port relocation is necessary because now “it is at the end of a 93 km long channel that leads into calm waters, which are an estuary.” For productivity growth and foreign trade ships that should enter this channel “are so large that maintaining the required depth is economically unmanageable.”

The minister said that the investment required to achieve the project would be about “one thousand million dollars” and if the port grows even more, the city will also collapse. “What is sought is to move to a more suitable site within the confines of Guayaquil.”

Finally Duarte said: “The port of Guayaquil is multipurpose and will remain so. What we are trying to specialize is that the other ports of the country have modern facilities.“