Ecuador has big plans for revamping Manta, its principal ocean port. But the market pariah will struggle to compete for funds with similar projects in Peru.
by Lucien Chauvin
In 2020, Ecuador hopes to celebrate the bicentennial of the declaration of its independence with Manta as the principal port on South AmericaEs Pacific coast. A docking center will be interconnected with the rest of the country and much of the northern half of region through a series of roads and waterways. oManta is going to be the doorway between South America and Asia. It is a deepwater port with ample room for the major expansion we have planned,o says Luis Carguaitongo, a spokesman for the Manta Port Authority. Besides the port, Carguaitongo says there is a modern airport for cargo and a land transportation system in the works that will make it easy and cheap to move goods from Belem, on BrazilEs Atlantic coast, up the Amazon to Manaus and then over to Ecuador and Manta on the Pacific coast. Much of the scheme remains on the drawing board and other countries, principally Peru, are racing to do something similar.
