PERU’S NEW GOVERNMENT WANTS MORE CHINA

by Nelly Luna Amancio, Diálogo Chino

Peru’s new president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (known as PPK), intends to stimulate the country’s economy by processing and refining minerals, in addition to simply exporting them. Since his victory in the runoff election on June 5, Kuczynski has declared the need for Peru to prioritize both mineral extraction and trade relations with China.

China is Peru’s biggest investor. With this in mind, Kuczynski—who will replace the outgoing President, Ollanta Humala, at the end of July—described as “necessary” a trip to China ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Lima in November, his first official visit overseas. “China is our number one trading partner and they are the ones who purchase our minerals,” he said.

“We are an economy with enormous natural resources, but we have to industrialize and that is no easy task. So, we will have to work with those who buy significant amounts of our exports, which means, to a large extent, China,” Kuczynski insisted during the Eleventh Business Summit of the Pacific Alliance in Lima in June.