Ecuador and China sign hospital reconstruction and educational technology agreements

Ecuador and China signed three cooperation agreements on Wednesday for the construction of hospitals destroyed by the 2016 earthquake and for advanced education technology.

The Bahia de Caraquez hospital was destroyed in the 2016 earthquake. (El Universo)

The deals cover construction of hospitals in Chone and Bahia de Caraquez, replacing ones destroyed in the April 2016 earthquake, and for hardware and software to upgrade education information technology in Ecuador.

China is donating the funds to construct and furnish the Bahia de Caraquez hospital, Ecuador’s foreign ministry reported.

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa and China’s ambassador to Ecuador, Wang Yulin, signed the agreements in a ceremony also attended by Ecuador’s education and health ministers, Fander Falconi and Veronica Espinosa.

According to the officials, the latest agreements boost diplomatic ties between the countries that were recently tested by Ecuador’s seizure of a Chinese fishing ship caught in protected waters near the Galapagos Islands.

The two countries have signed a dozen cooperation agreements in the finance, politics, culture, communications, extradition and production areas, while a cooperation accord also was reached in the wake of Ecuador’s devastating April 2016 earthquake.

More than 90 Chinese companies currently operate in Ecuador.