Ecuador Seeking Chinese Airport Partners

Ecuador is seeking Chinese partners to develop the Manta airport, according to Analytica Securities, the Quito-based brokerage. “[President] Correa seeks to supplant the US anti-narcotics base in Manta with a Chinese-run airport oriented toward trans-Pacific trade and tourism,” says Analytica. “The airport would become a kind of symbol of an emerging multi-polar order no longer focused on the US.” The US apparently invested close to $100m in upgrading the Manta airport and would like to keep it for another 10 years for service in the drug war. “The lease, however, will likely not be renovated in 2009 as a result of nationalist, anti-American sentiment fanned by the Correa government,” says Analytica. Correa apparently views Manta as the natural South American hub for travel across the Pacific. Chinese firms are increasingly interested in buying stakes in a variety of LatAm sectors, say M&A bankers.