Today, on the 478th anniversary of Guayaquil’s foundation, the largest city in Ecuador got a new central post office. The new Correos del Ecuador building was built from scratch on an empty lot in Sauces 7, in the city’s north. It replaces the 80-year-old Post Office building downtown.

At the opening, President Rafael Correa mentioned that the public postal service was almost privatized and sold at one point by one of his predecessors, for $16,000. He said public corporations can be made efficient.

“They used to handle 2 or 3 million packages a year. Now they handle 35 million,” Correa said.

The postal service, Correa said, wasn’t the only public utility almost ruined by “the right,” and mentioned the state phone company Pacifictel.

Correa said this year, Correos del Ecuador might be self-sustaining, financially. The money for the $4.7 million building came out of Ecuador’s general budget.

Jaime Guerrero, Minister of Telecommunications, said at the event that in 2007 when Correa’s government took over, they found mail sacks stored next to garbage in shuttered warehouses. He says now the postal service is an example of efficiency.

The new building has been under construction since October 2011.

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