This article is part of a daily series of MegaProjects articles. If you want to know more about PPP projects with a considerable size visit our MegaProjects section. You can receive them by email on a daily basis.

The government of Ecuador has released the Guayaquil's Port Development Plan that will see more than US$1billion in investments in port PPPs during the next decades.

The development plan for the city of Guayaquil  will create the necessary conditions to optimize and expand port activities in the city. The PPP project was approved in the presence of Lenin Moreno, the President of the Republic, Paúl Granda, the Minister of Transport and Public Works, and the municipal council of Guayaquil led by Mayor Jaime Nebot.

The development of the plan will be based on six pillars, starting from improvements to the roads between Guayas and Santa Elena provinces to speed up cargo transportation between ports estimated in about US$230mn; a new bridge between Guayaquil and the town of Durán, estimated in US$800mn; an expansion of the Guayaquil port's transport logistics center; the creation of container storage center; rehabilitation of the port's floodgates to promote touristic development and the creation of a technologic institute to boost education careers related to the port sector, international commerce and tourism.

President Moreno said that this Plan will raise the level of productivity of the port with a direct impact on better economic conditions for the inhabitants:

"The granting by the National Government of the benefits and incentives of the Public-Private Alliance Project to dredge and maintain the access channel to the ports of Guayaquil and the approval of the request of its Minister of Transport and Public Works and the Port Authority of Guayaquil, of the Integral Port Development Plan, are not only a way to boost our ports, but also a clear positive message to foreign investment".