Peru, 2010

This

is the second time in 25 years that I have come to this

podium as head of State of Peru to address the

representatives of all the countries of the world.

First of all, I would like to begin by

congratulating the President of the General Assembly

at its sixty-fifth session. Peru will constructively

support his actions because we are sure that his

experience will help us to achieve the results we hope

for.

The first decade of this century has already been

marked by the bloody attack of 11 September 2001 and

again by the greatest economic crisis of the last

80 years. That shows that we face enormous challenges

that know no borders and require a joint, united

response from the entire international community.

Hence, in this most important forum on our globe, Peru

reaffirms its resolve to cooperate with the United

Nations and other States to tackle the challenges of

climate change, terrorism, extreme poverty, the

economic crisis, drug trafficking, weaponization and

xenophobia, which is rearing its head again.

For Latin America, the first decade of the twenty-

first century has also meant confronting a choice

between two different models of social and economic

development.

The first is social democracy exercised through

institutions. This is a democracy that recognizes

market policy and that attracts global investment with

clear rules, but which also has public policies for

35 10-54827

productive infrastructure. This is a democracy that

does not just wait for a trickle-down effect to reach the

poorest, but neither does it resort to the facile approach

of subsidizing everything or raising wages in the public

sector. This is a democracy that is open to the world

and that acknowledges the immense power of

cybernetics and communications and that, therefore,

embraces a global market policy and aims to reach

outward in the world through fairly negotiated free-

trade treaties that preserve the rights of workers and

the environment. But this is also a democracy of

education, teaching people that the path to

development is one of effort and of individual and

collective merit.

In the face of that model of social democracy,

another path was proposed in America at dawn of the

twenty-first century. That was a model of State

ownership, advocated by countries with great natural

resources, who trust their development to administer

their resources and reject global investment. That

model aims to control the political direction of the

economy and rejects global reality. It suggests growing

the domestic market, administering international trade

by State authority, using subsidies and wages in the

public sector instead of promoting productive

infrastructure and assuring the peoples’ future.

Moreover, instead of affirming democratic institutions,

this alternative path affirms the politic will and

personal agenda of leaders, which always culminate in

an aggressive downward spiral, destroying freedom of

the press and expression and taking people down the

path of weaponization.

That second path does not seem to us a

responsible one, because it avoids reality and offers no

sustainable solution to social problems, nor does it

create jobs that people need, because poverty cannot be

diminished and true employment created without

modern technology and integration into the global

economy. Therefore Peru opts for a realistic and global

approach.

After four years, I am proud to share the progress

and successes that we have achieved in our social

agenda and in the Millennium Development Goals that

the United Nations has put forward. I can say that Peru

is today a more stable, independent and egalitarian

country than it was years ago; and all this means that

we are better able to contribute to the defence of world

freedom and democracy and to play a stronger role in

fostering regional and international peace and stability.

Peru has been one of the proving grounds for

realistic, global development, for modern, democratic

development that follows a global markets policy for

sustained development while pursuing social policies

that ensure increasing stability and equity for our

citizens. In the past five years we have achieved annual

growth of 6.5 per cent, and even in the year of the great

crisis we maintained employment growth and poverty

reduction. All the forecasts for this year indicate

economic growth of 8 per cent, which will enable us to

reduce further the poverty that still exists in our

country.

We have given priority to public spending on

infrastructure projects in the areas of health, education,

water and sanitation, electrification of thousands of

towns and roads, in accordance with the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) established by the

Assembly.

As a middle-income country, over the past four

years Peru has achieved an annual rate of public

investment of 6 per cent of output, double previous

rates, and has invested $24 billion in more than

130,000 specific projects aimed at raising the living

standards of our poorest populations and improve their

participation in the economy. However, besides public

efforts, and thanks to the stability of our economy and

to the rules we follow, the private sector has invested

and reinvested $72 billion over four years, creating

2.1 million new jobs. All international projections

indicate that we will continue to grow at an annual rate

of 6 per cent for the next six years, since we are

already assured of $38 billion in investments to be

made, in addition to investments in the agricultural and

manufacturing sectors.

Peru has succeeded in reducing its poverty rate

from 48 to 34 per cent of the population, and we shall

reach our goal of lowering it to 30 per cent next year.

We feel sure that when Peru celebrates the bicentenary

of its independence, in 2021, the rate will have fallen

to 10 per cent.

As I remarked yesterday at the High-level

Plenary Meeting on the Millennium Development

Goals (see ), Peru has achieved many of the

MDGs ahead of schedule and will continue to work to

meet all the goals of poverty reduction, improved

nutrition, literacy, health and education, among others,

which are the true objectives that every good

Government must aim for. Suffice it to say that our

10-54827 36

infant mortality rate has already been cut to half of

what it was at the beginning of the MDG period, and

by a third compared with five years ago.

All this has been achieved thanks to a stable

economic policy and an increase in basic services and

employment. Moreover, our currency reserves have

tripled in the last five years and now stand at

$42 billion. Peru’s financial system is one of the most

sound in the world, without debt or credit exposure that

might put it at risk. But the most important thing is that

the political discourse of politicians that constitutes an

essential element in driving and guiding our countries

has consistently advocated democracy and investment,

and has been fully in line with a broad path of

expanded trade and global investment. I believe that it

is this alignment that has granted us the results that we

can illustrate today.

As opposed to this, some countries in the

Americas which chose the second route — that of State

ownership, political management of the economy,

inward-looking growth and State administration of

trade or confrontation rather than productive

cooperation with other countries of the world — cannot

show similar results. Thus, we can now say that Peru

has laboured on the progressive path of history in

moving towards the purposes of the United Nations.

Moreover, the crisis has shown us that the free market

does not mean an absent State, and that we who govern

must not wait for wealth to expand without knowing

when and how to steer it in order to benefit those who

need it most.

Besides doubling our exports over four years and

tripling our reserves, we have also signed trade

agreements with most of the world’s countries — the

United States, China, the European Union, Canada,

Korea and many others — providing us with the

necessary base to maintain and drive growth and

improve our competitiveness, thus providing jobs for

the people. In this way Peru will be greater and will be

able to better contribute to international cooperation —

and cooperation, along with maintaining peace, is the

great purpose of our Organization.

We are aware, however, that we live in a

multipolar and interdependent system, and that none of

Peru’s achievements will be sustainable in the long

term unless we unite our efforts to combat common

threats. Peace, security and cooperation are inseparable

parts of globalization, and we must promote them

through coordinated strategies.

Twenty-five years ago I spoke from this rostrum

for the first time, and I see that, 20 years after the end

of the cold war, we have still not built the stability that

is a new multilateralism, based on the power of

international law. We are still in a situation of

uncertainty, where instability encroaches on peace and

new threats arise, testing the agility, creativity and

political determination of this Organization and the

countries it comprises.

Peru believes that in this globalized world,

security is the result of the interaction of internal and

external factors. We are thus deeply concerned about

the proliferation of nuclear arms, which must be halted

at all costs. There is also, however, the issue of

conventional weapons, since in practice it is they that

produce the death and destruction suffered in many

parts of the world. Moreover, arms and the arms trade

limit social development, foster poverty and inequality

and feed the threat of instability. Peru has therefore

proposed to all countries of South America, the

adoption of a protocol on peace, security and

cooperation to bring about permanent peace and

reduced arms expenditures.

In our view — and this has been said a thousand

times here — it is not possible that, since the

establishment of the integrated, reliable Union of South

American Nations, its 10 member countries have

invested $25 billion in new weapons and spent another

$150 billion on maintaining military operating

expenditures. This is shameful, because with that sum,

more than 50 million people in South America could

have ceased to live in poverty. Over the next five years,

if we do not halt this absurd arms race, we will have

spent another $35 billion on new weapons and $200

billion on regular military expenditure, thus fueling an

irrational race which will always find justification to

continue.

But the absurdity we see in South America is

even more serious on the global scale. It is not possible

for our countries to continue to allocate so much

money to the buying of weapons when there are so

many poor people in the world. It is as though the cold

war had not ended and was continuing to the benefit of

arms traders.

We say once again, as we did in the Union of

South American Nations and the Organization of

37 10-54827

American States, and as we say in all international

forums in which we participate, let us allocate less to

the buying of weapons and more to combating poverty.

Let us raise the flag of the martyr of pacifism Jean

Jaurès or our great friend, the Olof Palme of Sweden.

Let us demand that multilateral financial

institutions include anti-armament clauses in their

contracts and conditions, just as they do environmental

provisions. Why should they lend belonging to all the

citizens of the world to countries that use them in a

race to death? It is a serious matter to produce and

consume harmful drugs, but it is also a serious matter

for the richest countries of the world to produce

weapons for poor countries to buy, curbing their

development and road towards justice. We appeal to

the leaders of the world: stop buying and producing

arms; feed the disadvantaged; develop land; and create

employment.

Real strength, real leadership of nations and

peoples is found in intelligence and the ability to help

the least developed, not in the capacity for arms

production or its nuclear power. We know it is difficult

to make this appeal over and over again, but we shall

keep doing it because one day clarity and acceptance of

these ideas will prevail among world opinion and

among the world’s peoples.

For all those reasons, we call for this world forum

to act. It is important for us also to think of regional

integration, because we are not a cluster of asteroids.

But we believe in a modern, different integration. In

this world of computers, satellite communication, trade

without borders and human rights without national

restrictions, this new integration does not mean just

joining those who are already geographically joined,

but also using the tools of technology to ensure that the

furthest off are also integrated. This is the new space of

freedom that science and technology are creating for

human beings and nations.

We must get beyond the primitive idea that there

is not enough to go around and realize that when the

wealth of information is distributed, those who

distribute it are no poorer for having done so. Rather,

they have lost nothing by sharing with others.

Similarly, integration is a form of wealth which sooner

or later will reach all united peoples.

Here, I can provide a fine example of the path

followed by Ecuador and Peru after two centuries of

confrontation, hatred and war. Thanks to the

determination and political will of the Government of

Ecuador headed by President Rafeal Correa, and its

agreement with the Peruvian Government, we have

taken a quantum leap forward in fraternity, integration

and development.

Barely 15 years ago, we were divided by war, but

now we have a permanent joint binational Cabinet

thanks to which we have built bridges and thousands of

kilometres of roads, improved our agricultural systems

and integrated our social security systems for workers

in our two countries. We have binational consulates

and embassies, representing both our countries in many

parts of the world. Ours is an example we would like to

show to the United Nations as proof of our genuine and

active devotion to integration; we believe in integration

and in fraternity among peoples.

The need for greater integration was tested when

the worst international crisis of the past 80 years broke

out. This financial crisis, which began in developing

countries, has had consequences that we still cannot

predict. Our understanding of this crisis is the

following: the beginning of globalization and the

increase in world trade were possible only with the

new information and communications technologies

which, at the infrastructure level, have developed new

forms of production and policy.

Information is now the fundamental fuel driving

the economy and political change. It is gradually

displacing fossil fuels as the essential form of energy.

So we see the structure of world trade becoming

increasingly dematerialized, but information and

communication, by means of e-money and computers,

are able to work at such speeds that they have

outstripped the human capacity of our banks, our

financial wizards and existing institutions to manage

the new economy.

This is the dawn of a new, much swifter,

digitalized economy in crisis. But if this speed brings

crisis and chaos, the same speed of technology will

also bring solutions to problems engendered by the

crisis. We must trust in human beings and their creative

abilities. Never in human history have we had so many

means of payment and so much capacity to consume;

never have we had so much technological creation and

transformation; never have we had such an interactive

digital market that allows people, even the poorest,

from their homes to instantly stimulate production in

other parts of the world.

10-54827 38

This enables us to look with human optimism to

the future of the world and to believe that after a slight

rise in inflation in 2012, which will come about

because of the expansion of the means of payment to

overcome the crisis, world trade will accelerate and

help us emerge from the present circumstances.

However, we must be prepared for this greater

speed brought about by digitalization and by creativity.

We must strengthen our peoples’ and communities’

ability to integrate, strengthen exchanges among our

countries through transportation, communications and

electronic interconnection, strengthen education and

eradicate weaponization.

Our message is one of optimism about the world

situation. Despite ourselves, we are building a better

world, without borders, without tyranny, with more

freedom. We must act, employing policies which are

successful against the crisis. We must employ

democracy, sound institutions and realism, using

capital and international technology and mobilizing

investment in small and micro businesses.

Of course, our response to the crisis must always

be a collective one. The Group of 20 (G-20) is now the

prime forum of international financial cooperation and

coordination, and we must support its role to support

its role in reforming the system. We need a greater

regulation given the growing speed with which

financial and economic instruments can be

manipulated. Peru commends the efforts that have been

made, but proposes that the work of the G-20 gain in

legitimacy by establishing fluid lines of

communication with the International Monetary Fund

and the World Bank, and by involving other countries

in this work.

But just as in the financial crisis, all nations must

coordinate our efforts to properly confront terrorism,

drugs, the illicit arms trade, money laundering,

trafficking of persons, xenophobia and climate change.

With respect to this last theme, I must note that

Peru is vulnerable to the environment and is at very

serious risk due to climate change. But at the same

time, my country is strategically placed to mitigate and

adapt to the effects of global climate change because it

ranks fourth in terms of the quantities of tropical

forests.

We want to change our discourse. We have not

come with hand extended to demand cooperation from

the rich of the world but to demand that they fulfil their

commitments in their own countries. We have come to

say that we will do the same in our own countries.

In Peru, our forest sequesters 21 billion tons of

carbon per year. We have 84 biospheres and are one of

17 megadiverse countries on the planet.

I offer — if necessary, with hand extended to the

insensitive world of the rich countries — our budgetary

and humane commitment to protect, unscathed, Peru’s

54 million hectares of forest, thus controlling climate

change at the global level. As a tropical glacier country

in danger, we appeal to the world to implement specific

goals for cooperation and technology transfer and to

provide resources to develop programmes to combat

the effects of climate change.

We want an agreement that is comprehensive,

binding, fast and effective, and I reiterate to the

Assembly my country’s desire to strengthen joint

action through development of a clean and sustainable

growth economy with low carbon emissions. With that

intention we will voluntarily reduce to zero the

deforestation of the primordial natural forests and will

alter our present energy matrix so that by 2021

renewable non-conventional energy, hydropower and

biofuels will account for at least 40 per cent of the

energy consumed in the country. And we will make

annual reports to the Assembly.

However, we must not forget that much of the

pollution is still produced by poverty. Hundreds of

millions of households in the world continue to use

wood-burning stoves, thus driving deforestation and at

the same time polluting the environment and causing

serious bronchiopulmonary and nutritional problems

among children. We propose to reduce the number of

wood-burning stoves in Peru by 20 per cent by 2021

and to replace them with better stoves, and we want

that issue to become part of the Millennium Goals.

A final point is something of particular interest to

Peru — the situation of migrants. The globalization of

capital, services and products cannot be accepted

without also accepting the free movement of people or

facilitating their mobility. Peru actively promotes the

defense of the human rights of migrants and their

families, because it is a country built by European

migrants, as is the United States and many other rich

countries today — which they forget when they expel

today’s migrants and deport them by plane.

39 10-54827

Peru believes that migration is a development

tool that has enriched and continues to enrich universal

culture and the social life of countries. That is why we

condemn any type of regulation, whether in Arizona or

elsewhere, or any kind of xenophobic or discriminatory

expressions. It is a paradox that the countries governed

by the children of migrants are today those that most

vigorously deport migrants, unwittingly creating a new

form of domestic violence that could have very serious

consequences in the short term.

We reiterate that the best way to avoid

unregulated migration is by means of unhampered free

trade and investment from the most developed

countries that helps to generate employment and

improve the quality of life of people in the developing

countries.

Peru has an ongoing commitment with the United

Nations, a commitment with humankind without races,

colours or distinctions. We would like, as we proposed

a few years ago, to strengthen the entire system in

order to consolidate ourselves as a modern, strong and

free organization, free of the contradictions or delays

of the past, one that can ensure peace with less

bureaucracy and with greater resolve and stronger

political fortitude.

Let there be peace and well-being for all peoples

of the Earth; let there be bread with freedom for all

human beings.