Peru to raise 113 bln USD to narrow infrastructure gap

Peru plans to raise 113 billion U.S. dollars to reduce infrastructure gap, the Peruvian news agency Andina reported Thursday.

"Peru is on the way to close most of the infrastructure gap with a 113 billion-dollar portfolio of projects financed jointly by the central government and local governments, in partnership with the private sector," the report said, citing information from the official daily El Peruano.

Jose Carlos Lumbreras, project development manager of the publication "The Top 10,000 Companies" , told El Peruano that the government's plan aimed to bring down an infrastructure deficit which ballooned to 121 billion dollars in March.

"Implementation of these investment plans will reduce the infrastructure gap by over 93 percent, which will contribute undoubtedly to the growth of local economies, as 85 percent of these projects are located out of Lima," Lumbreras said.

Only 10 percent of the 2,083 projects have been awarded, however, he said, noting that most of the plans were stuck in local governments.

Lumbreras said the Peruvian government has earmarked 11.4 billion dollars in its annual budget to the projects, with more than half of them channeled into sectors including transportation, housing, urban development, agriculture and mining. Endi