2024-03-06 14:42:33
Since 2014, Manabí has been on South Korea’s radar to develop a logistics infrastructure hub. A delegation from an engineering studies company from the Asian country will arrive in the province.
Manabí attracts economic activities. Currently, there is interest for it to become a South Korean Hub to serve all Asian companies with investments on the western Pacific coast, from Colombia to Chile. For this reason, this February 24 and 25, 2024, a delegation of four people from the private company Dohwa Engineering Co. LTD. arrived in the province of 1.5 million inhabitants, to learn details of a project called “HUB “Manabí Logistics”.
During this visit, representatives of the Asian company signed a cooperation agreement with the municipality of Montecristi and Manabí Development and Investment Corporation, to carry out pre-feasibility studies for the Logistics HUB starting in 2025, for USD 1,000,000. Jointly, they will inspect the Montecristi-Manta-Jaramijó conurbation, since the studies will be carried out in that area.
That is, the award and execution of the analyzes of the Logistics HUB with the company Dohwa Engineering Co.LTD., opens the doors of Ecuador to cooperation with the Government of South Korea and, with it, access to incentives. Among them is the allocation of USD 10 million in the Economic Innovation Partnership Program (EIPP), for non-refundable financing of pre-feasibility and feasibility studies of infrastructure projects in Ecuador, which includes the Manabí Logistics HUB.
A delegation from South Korea was in Manabí, in 2023, to create an investment ecosystem. FIRST FRUITS
It was in 2020 when the Korean Ministry of Strategy and Finance launched the Economic Innovation Partnership Program (EIPP), which focuses on the sustainable economic development of partner countries and strengthening economic cooperation.
PRIMICIAS spoke with representatives of Manabí Development and Investment Corporation, which manages the project and seeks to promote production, competitiveness, attract investment and sustainable development. The corporation reported that the Logistics HUB includes at least 1,000 hectares.
“We do not want all these available resources that allow Ecuador to develop, to create an ecosystem that generates added value and opportunities to be wasted,” said Nicolás Trujillo, executive director of Manabí Development and Investment Corporation.
In addition, Trujillo said that there is the possibility of accessing the South Korean Government fund called the Economic Development Cooperation Fund-EDCF, which has an initial quota for Ecuador of USD 100 million. “At an extremely favorable rate, funds could be used for the development of this logistics infrastructure hub,” Trujillo added.
Logistics center
The Logistics HUB initiative dates back to 2014, when the Korean government showed interest in infrastructure projects. Currently, the idea still stands, because “they want to set up a logistics center to be able to bring their products, transform them, add value to them and distribute with a regional reach.”
In this sense, Darío Herrera, president of Manabí Development and Investment Corporation, revealed that the first approaches were in 2022 and in 2023 there was a first visit to the province.
According to Herrera, Manabí remained on South Korea’s radar because the province and, especially Manta, has multimodal logistics potential with an international port and airport. In order to develop this project, which includes free zones, Herrera says that it was necessary to have a law to promote them.
Only at the end of 2023, in the Government of Daniel Noboa, in the tax reform called the Law of Economic Efficiency and Employment Generation, was the figure of free zones included, which are geographical areas where companies will pay less taxes.
The free zones
In 2010, during the government of Rafael Correa, the free zones, created since 1991, were replaced by Special Economic Development Zones (Zedes). However, during Noboa’s mandate the figure of free zones returned.
“When the Free Trade Zone Law is approved, the window opens, but these funds could not be taken to be used in 2024, because they were already assigned and so they are going to be put in now, to begin the studies in 2025,” explains Herrera. Trujillo adds that developing these large-scale projects with South Korea also benefits academic and technological cooperation.
In reference to the coordination with the Government of Ecuador, from Manabí Development and Investment Corporation, the chancellor, Gabriela Sommerfeld, and the Minister of Production and Foreign Trade, Sonsoles García, assure that they are aware of the project.
Source: PRIMICIAS