New Minister of Finance

ECUADOR - In Brief 15 May 2018 by Magdalena Barreiro

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Maria Elsa Viteri is the first casualty from the intentional cabinet crisis provoked by president Moreno who last week requested the resignation from all ministers and other high government officers. This is a customary action taken by presidents usually in December of every year, but in this case, Moreno is aiming at reorganizing his team to start fresh his second year in office.Viteri´s poor performance in the two months she was in office raised criticism from almost every sector. The dissatisfaction reached its peak when she came back with zero results from her trip to Washington, DC. She was supposed to send to the Assembly several economic bill proposals necessary to make viable the economic program submitted last April. Whether she failed to do so because she new she was going to be ceased from office, or whether she was ceased because she failed to submit the mentioned bills, is not clear.Viteri is being replaced by Richard Martinez, a young economist who has been linked to the productive sector through the Chamber of Industries and the Ecuadorian Productive Committee for the past six years. Therefore, this turn of 180º taken by Moreno seems to finally respond to his offer of campaign to involve the private sector in the process of Ecuador´s investment and development. However, it also feels like a challenge to the sector to achieve this goal.Therefore, Martinez starts his job with important pending issues. Sending the mentioned bills to the assembly and clarifying the goals under the economic program is urgent, and addressing the practical and legal problem of public financing is not less important. We assess this appointment with hope and look forward to seein...