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.