Economic Development in Cuenca

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This nonreimbursable Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) tchnical cooperation (TC) aims to establish new management practices in local government, based on coordinated public and private efforts to foster economic development in Cuenca and Ambato, by formally establishing this relationship and strengthening the position of semi-public corporations. The TC components are: a) strengthening of two semi-public local development corporations, ACUDIR in Cuenca and CORPOAMBATO in Ambato, in order to improve the capacity for cooperative strategic planning between the public sector and other social agents; b) development of a local economic database system; c) human resource training, that will permit the supply of training to be adapted to demand in the production sector; and d) support for municipal modernization and private-sector participation in managing certain services. These components will be carried out in two phases: an initial phase of institutional strengthening, analysis and more detailed technical definition of the components; and a second phase to implement these components, upon completion of the first phase. The strengthening component funds: a) training the technical team in charge of managing the two local development corporations; and b) implementing a strategic planning process. The information component implements a local information network, consisting of various local entities that can be linked up to databases of interest to domestic and overseas businesses; the information network is also intended to standardize and improve the quality of local economic information. The system's products are expected to be: (a) information on small business development; (b) economic and land-use information for local government; (c) online links to various entities providing business services and training; and (d) information to promote the region's image, in order to attract tourism and investors. A Web page will also be created for the information system to identify the geographic area and facilitate user access to the information. The training component has two subcomponents: (a) human resource development for the private sector, or business management; and (b) municipal management training. The municipal modernization component funds: (a) reform of certain municipal management practices; and (b) implementation of a process to have the private sector share in the management and improvement of certain municipal services. Private-sector involvement is considered particularly appropriate in the following service areas: (a) in Cuenca, the slaughterhouse, the terminal central office and the cemetery; and (b) in Ambato, the slaughterhouse, wholesale market and public parking. After review, the services areas might be expanded to other appropriate services to be managed by small companies, such as billing, health services, and education. In each case, the most appropriate forms of private-sector participation must be evaluated.