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Hello dacosta, and happy birthday, I see it was a week ago.

Ecuador is a rich country, and since is in a development stage, you can do almost any kind of businness you want.

I live in Cuenca, voted the number one city to retire in the world. You can see some info about Ecuador and Cuenca, videos and a lot of useful information here: liveinecuador.inmocorp.com

Construction is a very good businness, I work with an expat from USA who is building houses and appartment buildings and he is doing great.

Another great businness for expats is opening a bar or a cafe or something like that.

Hope this helps.

If you need more help, I can try helping you, write to me

[Moderated: Content has commercial aim]

I'm gonna stick my head out here since nobody gives you any practical info. You must keep in mind that business ethic in Ecuador, and in Latin America in general is different from US. I don't know if you've ever been to Middle Eastern markets, or shopped in small stores in Hong Kong, or maybe ever visited Eastern Africa... if you have, you'd know that there could be a lot more to successfully concluding a business than a verbal agreement: OK, hands shaking, money changing hands etc... Same in Ecuador. If you look at these "business people" from your western point of view, you might think that they all are simply retards... they're NOT, it is just different, and you'd better get used to it or you drive yourself nuts here. They tend to pay little attention to verbal agreements (often to the written ones too), that might make you think that their word means nothing. True. They tend to downplay their part of agreements and exaggerate yours. Ignorance you might think. OK... They tend to change agreements without consulting you, giving silliest explanations if any at all. Yes, they think you are a moron and they are pinnacles of human evolution... Time is NOT money in this part of the world. Be prepared to wait longer then you planned for ANYTHING.
I can provide dozens of examples (from my own life here and my expat-friends') of deals went bad: rental agreements, buying property, money lending etc etc, and only brutal pressure (putting it nicely) led to some kind of satisfactory closure.
I recommend: live here first for some time and observe the way people deal here. It will save you a lot of headache.
Having said that, there are exceptions, of course. I wish you deal only with those exceptions, but... As I said once before: to be really happy here, you have to turn Ecuadorian.
Good luck.

I totally agree. Doing business in South America is not like doing business in the USA,  having said that, I have been taken more in the USA than here.

Being here and doing business in Ecuador would be like going back 50 years and doing business in the USA but with the  is knowledge of what going to take place in the next 50 years in the USA.

I wrote an article " Why Havent I Heard of This Before" that may give everyone some insight.

president@bcsinvestmentfirm.com

Charles Barrett

I realize this is a very old, inactive thread but it's the most relevant one I could find.  Anyway, for what it's worth, I find these rankings interesting - this one being the latest "Ease of Doing Business" ranking done annually by the World Bank Group:



Selected rankings:

1.  New Zealand
7.  United Kingdom
8.  United States

22.  Canada

31.  Switzerland

40.  Russia

53.  Colombia
55.  Puerto Rico

62.  Costa Rica

70.  Panama
78.  China

114.  Ecuador

Interesting indeed, and for "Starting a business", it'is ranked 166. Getting credit is 101, which is a fact because some banks won't even consider a person unless they've been a resident for minimum of 3 years.