Peru is now classified by the World Bank as an upper-middle-income economy, following two decades of remarkable economic growth. This can largely be attributed to Peru’s sound macroeconomic policies and economic openness, resulting in renewed investor confidence and improved infrastructure to support Peru’s competitiveness and productivity growth.

Continuous efforts to improve governance structures, empower institutions and foster social inclusion have led to growing political stability and earned Peru a high rank on the Word Bank’s 2017 Ease of Doing Business (58th out of 190 countries). Furthermore, Peru is considered one of the most open economies in South America, having engaged in numerous multilateral agreements, including Pacific Alliance - APEC, Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, and numerous bilateral agreements with the EU, China and the United States of America, among others.

Peru's continuing socio-economic progress relies on promoting national quality infrastructure and innovation systems to increase competitiveness, as well as addressing regional inequalities and driving the transition of the informal economy to formality. With strong government support and solid regulatory policies, Peru is in a favourable position; however, institutional challenges must be addressed to ensure that productivity growth results in social, environmental and economic benefits for the nation as a whole.

Fostering modern, competitive and inclusive industry in Peru

In December 2015, the Government of Peru and UNIDO began developing a holistic programme to accelerate inclusive and sustainable industrialization in Peru. The Programme for Country Partnership for Peru (PCP Peru) seeks to facilitate the mobilization of partners, expertise and resources to help advance modern, competitive and inclusive industry in Peru in line with the national development strategy, Plan Bicentenario: El Perú hacia el 2021 (Plan 2021).

The PCP rests on a multi-stakeholder partnership between development partners, UN agencies, financial institutions and the business sector, under the overall leadership of the Government of Peru.

UNIDO provides advisory services to the Government on industry-related issues, leads programme design, provides multidisciplinary technical assistance, and facilitates overall PCP coordination and the convening of partners. The various technical projects and programmes are implemented by UNIDO and other development partners, and coordinated through national governing bodies.

PCP Peru focuses on four main areas: (i) quality and innovation; (ii) value chain and enterprise development; (iii) sustainable industrial parks and zones; and (iv) industrial resource and energy efficiency and renewable energy.

The PCP also provides support to the Government on several cross-cutting issues, including policy development, environmental sustainability, small and medium-sized enterprise development, and gender.

PCP Peru supports the following national targets from the Plan 2021, inter alia:

The Implementation Phase of the PCP Peru launched in January 2018 with 5 priority technical cooperation projects selected to commence initial activities. In parallel, UNIDO is supporting the Ministry of Production in developing a National Industrial Policy and a National Industrial Parks Strategy, building on initial studies conducted during the PCP’s Programming Phase.

Main partners of PCP Peru include, among others:

National public sector - Ministry of Production, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Energy and Mines, Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Finance Corporation (COFIDE)

National private sector - National Association of Industries (SNI), National Council for the Development of SMEs (CODEPYME)

Financial institutions - Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank - International Finance Corporation, Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), Global Environment Facility

Multilateral - European Union, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Bilateral - Austria, China, Germany (GIZ), Korea, Japan, Spain, Switzerland (SECO)

UN System - Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)