Alberto Acosta Burneo, editor of the local media Análisis Semanal , states that "a port is not a cash cow for the State."

Significant investments have been made in Ecuador's port sector, which has allowed the sector to prepare for an increasingly competitive international environment. However, this must be complemented with investment in logistics, services, security, etc., and this is due to the opportunities generated by the opening of Ecuadorian foreign trade through trade agreements, including that with China, according to the editor of Análisis Semanal and consultant at Grupo Spurrier, Alberto Acosta Burneo, who adds that a port is a fundamental service for the country's competitiveness and "is not a cash cow for the State." In addition, he comments on the renegotiation of the contract for the Port of Manta with the Government of Daniel Noboa.

- How can Ecuadorian ports become more competitive?

The way to maintain competitiveness is through investment in infrastructure, services, security, which is what exporters, importers and shipping companies are looking for, and all of that is achieved with investment, which is why these perspectives, these investment forecasts, are so important, because that is what will allow us to remain competitive to prevent cargo from ending up going to neighboring ports, instead of having much more direct routes.

- How are they doing in Peru?

In Peru, there have been huge port investments, in the Port of Chancay, the expansion of the Port of Callao, all of these investments imply that Ecuador has to continue investing, so for me the most important focus, which is what should concern the country in terms of the entire port issue, is how much will be invested, what will happen in the future? Because Ecuador has to be competitive, have the largest number of routes, even direct routes and connections, and in this way avoid the scenario of going back to being a country with feeder ports, ports that feed neighboring countries and then go to other places.

- What is the investment situation in Ecuador's ports?

There is a lot of talk and people want to put all the focus on how much the State takes, but for me that is the wrong approach, that is not what is important, what is truly important is what investments are being made and how does that improve competitiveness? Because a port is not a cash cow for the State or should not be, just as, for example, telephony should not be.

- How are investments in Ecuador's ports?

Fortunately, the country has been betting on a port concession scheme for more than ten years. Previously, the State directly managed the ports... Ecuador has been able to make this leap thanks to concessions and private investment. Up to now, US$1.1 billion has been invested in all ports at the national level and around US$1.2 billion is committed to future investments. In other words, the port sector continues to prepare for an increasingly competitive international environment.

- Grupo Spurrier has carried out an update of the economic study of the Manta port terminal concession following the announcement of renegotiation made by TPM and the Government in July. What are the results?

The most important thing about the changes is that the sources of income for the Ecuadorian State have been modified. In 40 years of concession, the State would have received US$ 76 million in royalties; after the renegotiation this value doubles and it will receive US$ 148 million. Then we have the contributions to the State, which go from US$ 52 million to US$ 58 million; income tax from US$ 40 million to US$ 57 million... This includes the investments that remain in favor of the State, US$ 644 million; before the renegotiation the State was going to receive US$ 544 million, so we see that there is a difference of almost US$ 100 million... At the end of the day, the State's participation goes from 79% to 83% of the project's income... The concessionaire will receive 17%, before it was 21%.

- How does this increase occur?

In order to make this adjustment and not put competitiveness and financial sustainability at risk, a change was made to the canal usage fee, which was a fee that was below market levels, the fee paid by shipping companies, so that fee was adjusted to be at the level of the rest of the ports and this allows for the generation of additional income, which also allows for the financing of a significant part of this additional income for the State.

- Is there a possibility of a new renegotiation and that these amounts will increase again or is it already fixed?

I think this is already fixed. There was room for renegotiation because the concession was made based on certain projections. A few years ago, when the projection began, it was said: 'the future is going to be like this' and there were certain things that were expected that did not happen.