In recent days, the Italian Ambassador to Ecuador, Caterina Bertolini presented the third call for bids for the Italo-Ecuadorian Fund for sustainable development (FIEDS – Fondo Ítalo Ecuatoriano para el Desarrollo Sostenible), an exchange mechanism established through the Agreement for the Conversion of debt into development projects, signed by the governments of Ecuador and Italy in April 2016.
The Ecuadorian Foreign Minister, Juan Carlos Holguín also attended the presentation ceremony for the call for bids – 12 million dollars in total to finance development projects in the country. Marking the occasion, Ambassador Bertolini said that “it will now be possible to finance up to a maximum of 16 projects of 750,000 dollars each, including three important priorities for Ecuador. Projects aimed at boosting sustainable economic growth, tackling chronic child malnutrition and to fight gender-based violence”. Another key sector “considered to be a priority for the Italian government” is “the preservation of cultural heritage”. She specified that projects would be funded that generate employment for young people and women in a context of emphasising cultural identity in four Ecuadorian provinces: Manabì, Pichincha, Azuay and Loja”.
The FIEDS is the second phase of an initiative started between Italy and Ecuador in 2003 to transform the Ecuadorian debt into projects that would benefit the public. The Italo-Ecuadorian Fund (FIE) operated from the beginning of the project to 2016, leading to the funding of 115 projects which benefitted 360,000 people. FIEDS was then established in 2016 and manages 50 million dollars in resources between the principal and interest of the Ecuadorian debt.
