• New portfolio features 72 projects, for a total investment of PEN 146 billion.

In mid-2019, the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) launched the National Infrastructure Plan for Competitiveness (PNIC), which contained 52 projects totaling over PEN 100 billion. Three years later, the same entity has updated the plan and added 20 more projects, with the total investment amount rising to PEN 146  billion.

A couple of new elements in the 2022-2025 National Sustainable Infrastructure Plan for Competitiveness are the inclusion of two sectors that had not been included in the prior version, namely health and education; and the incorporation of sustainability criteria, which means that  environmental, institutional, and social criteria have been added to the economic and financial ones.

Nevertheless, updates and benefits of this new instrument aside, some observations have been made about the plan, like the ones by former Minister of Economy Carlos Oliva, who said that, in prioritizing the “public work” modality, this new plan will demand more resources from the Peruvian State.

“I have nothing against the public work modality, but, since Peru is a country with great tax revenue needs, it would be logical to try to leverage our resources together with the private sector and try to do as many works as possible in the short term,” he affirmed.

The 2019 PNIC gave priority to self-financed public-private associations (18 projects). That model benefited projects that demanded fewer resources from the State, with the financing criterion for project ranking having a weight of 11%.

Yet the 2022 PNISC only features six projects under the self-financed public-private association modality, with the financing criterion now having a lower weight of 3.6%. “This kind of things should be explained. If we have few resources, let us use them in the best way,” he added.

Other new elements in the 2022 PNISC is that there are no projects in the energy sector (previously there were 9), the number of transportation projects has gone down (from 26 to 18), there has an increase in the number of projects in the water and sanitation sector (from 4 to 12), and the health and education sectors have been added, with 22 and 4 projects, respectively.

Carlos Oliva commented that, in this new National Infrastructure Plan, 77% of the portfolio investment goes to 15 projects, and over 40% of the resources are allocated to projects in Lima Metropolitan area.

The goal of the 2022-2025 National Sustainable Infrastructure Plan for Competitiveness is to become a tool that enables us to boost economic growth, enhance competitiveness, contribute to closing gaps, and attain long-term unlocking of infrastructure.

Rumbo a PERUMIN

Rumbo a PERUMIN is an initiative of the Peruvian Institute of Mining Engineers (IIMP) and the Executive Committee of PERUMIN 36. It involves an agenda of virtual activities that seek to create spaces for analysis, knowledge and debate on mining.