ECUADOR

On March 8, the Economic Development Committee of the National Assembly approved the report for the first debate on the Investment Attraction, Strengthening of the Securities Market and Digital Transformation bill, presented by the Executive. Assembly members agreed that in the section referring to public-private partnerships (PPPs), it should be expressly established that the different contractual modalities of delegated management do not represent the privatization or alienation of existing or new State assets. The text is ready to be discussed on the floor of the plenary, which is expected to take place in the short term.

With the aim of controlling the origin of the funds of the investing entities, a clause was added to article 17, which refers to the functions of the Technical Secretariat of PPPs and delegated management, requesting reports on the legality of funds coming from abroad. In addition, the assembly member Cesar Rohon (Independent) mentioned that the over-the-counter market represents prior negotiations outside the stock exchange that are then registered in the stock market, and should therefore be included in the regulations.

The representative of the Ministry of Production, Bolívar Figueroa, said that the article proposes two different legal regimes. Firstly, the customs destination for the Special Economic Development Zones (Zedes in Spanish), while for the free trade zones, the free trade regime is established. In this regard, he suggested not explicitly including the concept of extraterritoriality because it could be interpreted as meaning that free trade zones are territories legally outside the country, which could lead to economic activities outside Ecuadorian legislation.