President of Ecuador to explore access to Chinese loans during international tour

Photo: Presidencia de la República del Ecuador.

According to an article from the outlet La Hora, the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, will begin an international tour on June 22 of the current year 2025, in which his first destination will be the People’s Republic of China, where he will hold a meeting with his counterpart Xi Jinping. In that meeting, the Ecuadorian president will seek to obtain a percentage of the line of credit that the Asian country offered to Latin America and the Caribbean.

This offer was made by the president of the People’s Republic of China in the framework of the China-CELAC Forum 2025, which was held on May 13 and 14 of the past month. According to what was announced by the Chinese leader, the Asian country prepared an amount of 9.2 billion dollars so that the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean may access part of it in the form of loans.

For now, ten days before the end of June of the current year 2025, these funds have not yet been acquired by any of the member nations of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). However, some countries such as Mexico, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Argentina are currently in negotiations to secure a portion of the amount.

It is known that Ecuador has not yet reached any agreement with the People’s Republic of China, but according to combined analyses by multilaterals and investment banks, as cited by La Hora, it is estimated that the Latin American country would seek to obtain between 300 and 600 million dollars, or even a total of 920 million dollars.

It is worth mentioning that access to these loans is subject to certain conditions: in order to receive a percentage of the total amount of 9.2 billion dollars, the projects must demonstrate technical viability, institutional and political stability, high financial sustainability and full clarity and transparency in the execution mechanisms.

According to several reports produced by the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University, the Chinese government has transformed its way and purpose of granting loans, moving from generalized lending to a focus on viable projects with measurable returns and institutional guarantees.

The priority sectors for investment through these loans from the People’s Republic of China would be sustainable transportation, value-added mining, renewable energy, 5G connectivity, logistics, digitalization and port infrastructure.

Regarding this, Alfredo Ramos, a consultant on economic development and financing issues, commented that “China no longer finances countries, it finances projects. Governments must present proposals with demonstrable economic viability and political stability. That is Beijing’s new formula for trust in Latin America.”

It is important to mention that, in the framework of the China-CELAC Forum 2025, Ecuador’s Minister of Economy and Finance, Sarinha Moya, had already held several bilateral meetings with financial institutions of the People’s Republic of China, with the aim of exploring the possibility of obtaining loans for projects in various economic sectors.

Some of the main banks with which Minister Moya met were the Bank of China, the China Development Bank (CDB), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).

Also, in the context of the China-CELAC Forum 2025, the Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China, Wang Yi, stated that “China is willing to work with the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean to open a new stage of financial cooperation with shared benefits.”

On the other hand, according to data from ECLAC, between the years 2005 and 2023, the nation led by Daniel Noboa was one of the countries that obtained a higher percentage of loans from the People’s Republic of China in the Latin American region. The only nations that accessed more financing than Ecuador were Venezuela, with 49 percent of the total, and Brazil, with 27 percent.

Specifically, between 2005 and 2023, the People’s Republic of China granted 133 loans in Latin America and the Caribbean, which totaled 120 billion dollars, resulting in an average value of 905 million dollars per loan.

Of that total, the financial institution that granted the majority of the loans was the China Development Bank, which issued 81 percent of all loans granted to Latin American and Caribbean countries. In second place, with 18 percent of the total loans issued, was the Export-Import Bank of China.

The peak period of lending by these two Chinese financial institutions occurred between the years 2010 and 2014, when the average annual amount reached 12.534 billion dollars, surpassing the financing granted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank.

However, the granting of loans and financing showed a decline beginning in 2020, dropping to an annual average of 473 million dollars. Therefore, this new amount of 9.2 billion dollars offered reflects the new Chinese strategy toward multilateral cooperation with a focused approach.

In Ecuador’s case, the country absorbed 10 percent of the total amounts granted by the People’s Republic of China and 8 percent of the total value of infrastructure sector projects financed by the People’s Republic of China between 2005 and 2023.

For that reason, the high-level bilateral meeting between Daniel Noboa and Xi Jinping will be a decisive meeting, where Ecuador could once again position itself as one of the largest recipients of Chinese financing.

However, according to a China-LAC 2025 report by the IDB and ECLAC, “Ecuador faces technical and execution challenges that could limit effective access to these resources if its institutional capacity is not strengthened.”

Last but not least, it is worth noting that, as of March 31 of the current year 2025, Ecuador held an external debt with financial institutions of China amounting to 2.421,38 million dollars, and the most recent loan occurred in 2018. It was a loan of 900 million dollars obtained by the government of Lenín Moreno.

* Original text in Spanish. Translated by Large Language Model (LLM) technology.

Main Source:

¿Cuánto puede aspirar Ecuador a recibir de nuevos créditos chinos? – La Hora

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