PRODUCTION, PRODUCTION, PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTION, IS WHAT ECUADOR NEEDS
Before the media, convened by Alvaro Noboa, the presidential candidate talked about his proposal to face the permanent price increase for goods.
“Production, production and more production. Ecuador has taken a wrong path in the economic sphere, very similar to Cuba and Venezuela, countries that have persecuted the private companies, the press; where there are no investment and as a result the production has dropped.”
The approval of the Law for the Distribution of Social Spending, on the judgement of Noboa, doesn’t benefit production.
“To be able to distribute you ought to have the same amount of money. Put your hand in your pocket and if you have $ 10, that’s what you can distribute; if you have a million dollars you can only distribute a million dollars. If the State have a billion dollars- thanks to the country’s wealth – the social distribution is much bigger. We are heading that way, to a wealthy and rich State and country, that can be able to distribute its wealth”.
In order to achieve this objective, emphasized Noboa, he will provide all the securities and incentives to the investors, both local and foreign.
“We are going to be like the Chinese people, they have achieved successful entrepreneurship. They have chosen the path of free enterprise and free trade, they welcome the entrepreneurs, they have impartial courts of justice; we are going that way. That’s why, we call ourselves a center-left wing political party”.
PRESS CONFERENCE
ÁLVARO NOBOA REGARDING ALLIANCE WITH PAN
Álvaro Noboa: Ecuadorians, may God be with us. We are here in the city of Guayaquil being visited by Mr. Jorge Marín, from the PAN movement. He has decided to endorse our candidacy, that is to say, the presidential running mates Álvaro Noboa – Annabella Azín de Noboa. The PAN is an old movement with its base in Quito and Tungurahua that just missed out on qualifying as a political party, but it continues to recruit members to be one, and meanwhile it is characterized as a popular movement. On Monday, we received the very support, which is very important to us, of the Concentration of Popular Forces (CFP). Today it is the PAN, and tomorrow, Thursday, and in the following week, we will continue to announce the other parties or movements that are joining our struggle. Together, we will fight to achieve a better Ecuador, in which we will continue the social work that has been achieved by Economist Rafael Correa – that is to say, the voucher, that he has just raised to $50, with which we are in agreement; all of his obligatory social security programs, all of his universal healthcare programs, and the construction of roads, and which also includes assistance to the handicapped established very successfully by the Vice-President of the Republic. We will continue all that with the same dedication. But besides that, we will fight against the poverty that has not been eradicated. And in our government, we will achieve the conversion of the poor or Ecuador into a middle class, in which one can have a technical school or university-level education that will allow you – in those businesses that we will bring to the country as a result of the invitation of investors from Ecuador and from the world over – that will allow you to earn $1,000, $2,000 and $3,000 a month as an educated middle class, just like in countries such as Chile, half of Brazil, a great part of Mexico and in all of the United States, where they have cement houses, and besides that, cars, and a good education.
This week we are visiting Mapasingue and we see that those neighborhoods are completely abandoned. The people of Mapasingue say that no candidate has gone there. The streets are not paved streets, there is no sewage system, a large number of the houses are made of cane with rustic roofs that mean they flood in the winter. The schools don’t have benches, they don’t have desks, they don’t have computers. For that reason, in the name of the New Humanity Crusade Foundation, we have donated a computer and a printer to the “Estado de Canada” School in the Los Prosperina zone, and we will continue to do so for years to come, and we will continue to do for all the schools where there is great need. I repeat, one finds the schools in a state of great abandonment. They don’t have benches for the students, they don’t have desks for the professors, they don’t have chalkboards, and my goal is to equip all of those schools. My goal is for all of the poor of Mapasingue to go to university, or at the very least to a superior technical school, and under my government, I will be able to offer you jobs, jobs and more jobs, which is Ecuador’s greatest need. That employment will come from the 1,000, 2,000 international business that will come to this country and that will undertake the training of those students, and who will raise their level to a technical level, to a specialized level, that will allow you to automatically earn $1,000 instead of $300, and then to add to that a university-level or technical college profession to be able to reach $1,000 or $3,000 as the middle class does in Ecuador. We want all the poor of Ecuador to live like the middle class in Ecuador and hopefully we will be able to continue making victorious strides in our great mission to eradicate poverty and to fight against crime of which Ecuadorian families are also sick and tired. With this, I know give you Mr. Jorge Marín, Director of the PAN. Welcome, Mr. Marín.
Jorge Marín: Colleagues, the Nationalist Alliance Party of Ecuador (PAN), after having reviewed the political ideology of the PRIAN, coincides with the humanist project, and with the common good, for which reason we have decided to support the project initiated by the PRIAN. We believe and we are convinced that Counselor Álvaro Noboa is the ideal person to rescue Ecuador from the current political and economic situation we are experiencing at this moment. We believe that he, as a person who knows how to develop sources of work in the country, will know how to move this country forward, a country that is hopeful of leaving behind the problems in which it currently finds itself, at all levels of the surroundings. We hope and believe that the decision that we have taken is the best for Ecuador and we will work to the end, hoping that Counselor Álvaro Noboa will be the next President of Ecuador. Long live Álvaro Noboa.
Álvaro Noboa: Thank you very much. Now speaking will be Dr. Annabella Azín, next Vice-President of Ecuador.
Annabella Azín: There’s nothing more for me but to say welcome to our fight, to welcome the PAN and united, we are sure, that we are going to take this candidacy forward and to achieve very good electoral results. I congratulate you, welcome to our party and we will work together towards the ideals shared as much by the PAN as by the PRIAN.
Álvaro Noboa: Any questions from the Press?
Press: How many years has the PAN been established?
Jorge Marín: The Nationalist Alliance Party was founded two years ago in the city of Quito, and it’s a national-level party. We presented 210,000 affiliations to the Electoral Counsel, but they eliminated 100,000. That was the reason we, coinciding with the ideology of the PRIAN decided to support Counselor Álvaro.
Press: Are there any PAN leaders who are going to be with the PRIAN in the elections as Assembly Member candidates?
Álvaro Noboa: Mr. Jorge Marín will be an Assembly Member candidate, representing his party in the national candidacy.
Press: In regards to the candidates for the National Assembly, who make up the leadership?
Álvaro Noboa: There is a group of people from the PRIAN, a group of independents, and a group from other parties. For example, there is also Walter Freire for the CRP, there is Sylka Sánchez from the PRIAN, there is Mr. Marin for the PAN, there is Alfonso Harb, there is Carlos Machuca. Each one has their movement, and obviously, democratically, we have given each space within our PRAN lists until they finish collecting their signatures.
Press: Each one will go for their corresponding district?
Álvaro Noboa: Yes, some will be nationals, like in the case of Walter Freire, as is the case with Jorge Marín; others provincial, like in the case of Pocho Harb who is heading District 2.
Press: Are there other alliances as well, Dr. Noboa?
Álvaro Noboa: Yes, but those surprises we will give out in the next few days. Possibly tomorrow. And on Monday or Tuesday we are going to keep giving them out because more banners are being added to the Ecuadorian flag and that of the PRIAN.
Press: How’s this rapprochement with other movements?
Álvaro Noboa: Well, we have sought them out and they accepted to talk with us. Remember that I also sought out Sociedad Patriótica. I also sought out the party of banker Guillermo Lasso, and even those of Madera de Guerrero. The PRE which is a perennial invite of ours and we continue in conversations with the PRE in light of the candidacy of Counselor Abdalá Bucaram having been rejected. We want a united country, in which there can be distinct ideologies. So, if he loses, as we think the candidacy of Economist Correa is going to lose, he will also be invited eventually to participate in my government, perhaps as an Ambassador to Belgium.
Press: Counselor, you spoke of the term “Security”, which is one of the losing battles of the current government. But another issue of interest to citizens is the of the increasing cost of permanent housing. What is the PRIAN’s proposal for stopping that attack on the family economy?
Álvaro Noboa: Production, production and more production. Ecuador has, in regards to the economy, taken a wrong path similar to that of Cuba and of Venezuela where they depend too much on petroleum, persecuting private enterprises, persecuting the press, and that has caused a decline in production: agricultural production, industrial production, but what’s more important still, new investors aren’t coming. Businesses are dynamic. Businesses are born and they die, just like Nature. They have to keep being reborn, because technology also requires there to be new products, and as a result, new businesses every day. And that process has been totally repressed by the government of Economist Correa. I admire what Economist Rafael Correa has done in the social arena. I think that together with what he has done, we are going to do the same as the Chinese, who have had great success in the social areas, and great success in business. They have chosen, in business, the way of free enterprise, the way of the free market, great openings for businessmen, impartial courts and that’s where we’re going to go. For that reason, they call us the party of the center-left.
Press: The approval of the Law of Distribution of Social Spending, in your opinion, will not benefit the country’s production?
Álvaro Noboa: No. You’ve got to have something in order to distribute it. Put your hand in your pocket. If you have ten dollars, you can only distribute ten dollars. If you have a million dollars, you can only distribute a million dollars. If you have a billion dollars of State money, or twenty million dollars of State money, or fifty million dollars of State money, thanks to the national wealth, then the social distribution is much greater. That’s what we’re aiming at. A rich State, a wealthy country that can distribute wealth.
Press: What will you offer investors so that they enjoy judicial security?
Álvaro Noboa: Investors are going to come if you make taxes attractive; if you don’t persecute them; if there is no class conflict; if the President doesn’t put his hands onto the court system. That’s where investors come from because they come for profitable and safe investment. There’s been no investment in Ecuador, nor has there been in Cuba, and very little in Venezuela in the last years because here, well, a business scarcely makes a profit before it’s immediately hounded by the IRS. Or when it wants to pursue a claim in the courts, they imprison the judge who finds in their favor. There are conflicts with the petroleum companies that want to come to Ecuador. In an environment of class conflict, the enemy of the State is the businessman. Investors are never going to come.
Press: What works of the current government do you give recognition to?
Álvaro Noboa: Roads, the $50 voucher, a social security that is more universal every day and health care that is more universal every day and the promotion of credit for housing via the BIESS because as social security is more extensive every day, the BIESS has more funds every day, and therefore there has been growth in housing in the country thanks to the BIESS credits, and our idea is to continue with Correa’s wise moves.
Photo Gallery: