In Spain, Lasso affirms that Ecuador has the mining potential of Chile and Peru

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On the first of three days of his visit to Spain, Lasso was received by King Felipe VI and participated in a meeting with businesspeople before meeting in the afternoon with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.

“Ecuador’s mining potential in the long term is similar to the current mining potential of Chile and Peru,” he said at the meeting in the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, where he explained the benefits of investing in his country.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Ecuador

“Ecuador exported US$ 900 million in minerals in 2020, in the pandemic, first year of this volume. This year we expect to reach US$ 1.7 billion”, he stated, citing figures still far from the exports of Chile (US$ 42.5 million) and Peru ( US$ 26 billion) in that period, according to official national statistics.

In addition, Lasso stated his intention to “double oil production in 5 to 7 years, going from 500,000 barrels per day to one million.”

The President assured that his country needed foreign investment to create jobs, and he set the goal of attracting US$ 30 billion in the next four years to create two million jobs. “The government does not have resources, nor does it have a large debt capacity, therefore, our development model relies heavily on the private sector,” he argued.

According to the Ecuadorian Central Bank, in 2020, foreign direct investment reached US$980 million in the country, and Spain was the largest investor with about $305 million.

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