UPDATE - Ecuador Interested In Russian Investments With Technologies Transfer -Presidential Hopeful

QUITO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th February, 2021) Ecuador is interested in Russian investments that include the transfer of technologies, leftist presidential candidate Andres Arauz told Sputnik.

On February 7, Ecuador held the first round of the presidential election, with Arauz having won it with over 32 percent and qualified for the runoff scheduled for April 11.

"Of course, we are interested in foreign investments, Russian investments with the transfer of technologies, so that Ecuador could retain its production capabilities," Arauz said on late Friday.

The presidential candidate believes that the trade between Russia and Ecuador could significantly rise. He also stressed the potential for developing bilateral educational and health care cooperation.

Arauz also expressed his satisfaction with the course of the talks with Moscow on purchasing Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus.

'We are very glad over the progress in the talks reached to date," the presidential candidate added, without saying how many doses of the vaccine may be bought by Quito.

Ecuador has already reached contracts on the deliveries of vaccines developed by Pfizer and AstraZeneca.