Peru woos Dubai investors

Peru is inviting UAE businesses for enhancing trade relations and to invest in the sectors of mining, textiles, tourism, fisheries and infrastructure. Luis Miguel Castilla, Minister of Economy and Finance of Peru, told UAE businessmen that some of these sectors are extremely rewarding for foreign investors. He was speaking at inPeru Dubai Seminar 2013 – Exporting Peru to the World, organised on by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry in association with inPeru, a private non-profit association founded by leading organisations representing the country’s economic activity, in the Dubai Chamber’s premises on Monday. Castilla called for strengthening cooperation between the two countries, stating that the seminar provided an ideal platform for investors from the UAE and Peru to work together for economic prosperity of their respective countries. He said that Peru is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, achieving a GDP growth of 6.4 per cent during the period 2002-12, the highest in the Latin American region. The country has a modern and stable legal framework and investment grade status. The seminar was also attended by Abdul Rahman Saif Al Ghurair, chairman of the Dubai Chamber; Hamad Buamim, director-general of the Dubai Chamber; Jose Romulo Acurio, Consul-General of Peru in the UAE; Julio Velarde, president of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru; Jose Antonio Blanco, executive chairman of inPeru; and over 100 business leaders from the UAE and 40 from Peru. Welcoming the delegation, Buamim called upon UAE and Peruvian businesses to establish joint business partnerships and to benefit from both governments’ support and the will to enhance cooperation ties between their two countries. “Our bilateral ties with Peru have strengthened considerably over recent years as data shows that from 2007 to 2011 non-oil trade between Dubai and Peru increased by 150 per cent. The value of imports and exports between this time rose from Dh38 million in 2007 to Dh95 million in 2011,” he said. Buamim urged Peruvian businesses to set up businesses in Dubai as the emirate offers Peruvian traders an efficient trade, transport and logistics base to reach high-growth emerging markets across the Mena, Asia and Africa. As one of the world’s largest exporters of gold, silver and copper, Peru could benefit from exporting these products to Dubai, for re-export to other demand markets. Likewise, with a strong manufacturing base, finished products could be shipped to Dubai for re-export to regional markets given the emirate’s strategic location, he said. For his part, Acurio said that this seminar is the start of a new ambitious relationship with the UAE as his country constitutes the second-largest destination for UAE investments in Latin America after Brazil. He also informed about the on-going negotiations between his country and the UAE for the signing of agreements on the avoidance of double taxation and investment protection. The number of tourist visas from the UAE to Peru doubled last year, he added. Blanco said that Peru is an investment grade country with an inflation rate not greater than 2.4 per cent per annum. The country enjoys a free open-market status and has free trade agreements signed with 95 per cent of its trading partners worldwide thus enhancing its trading ties in the areas of natural resources, agriculture and export of textiles. Source: Khaleej Times Online