A new study by two Peruvian universities says that the Andean country will require infrastructure investments of $88 billion until 2021, daily El Comercio reported.
The forecast from 2012 to 2021 is equivalent to 33 percent of Peru’s gross domestic product, according to the study by Lima’s Universidad del Pacifico and ESAN business school.
The study was commissioned by the Association for the Promotion of National Infrastructure, AFIN.
The new figure for Peru’s infrastructure gap is higher than previous forecasts because it takes into account a longer period of time, as well as new infrastructure needed due to the country’s strong economic growth. In the 2008 to 2012 period, authorities had said the infrastructure gap was $36 billion.
“Growing as a country we’ll need more infrastructure and if we don’t get it we are going to enter into a crisis,” said Gonzalo Priale, the president of AFIN.
The biggest demand for infrastructure works are in the energy, transport and telecommunications sectors, the study says. Energy projects will require investments of almost $33 billion, while transportation projects will require investments of $20.9 billion and telecommunications at $19.2 billion.
The authors of the study say that Peru’s government should facilitate investment by speeding up the permit processes, and creating attractive packages for private-public partnerships.
Peru’s Transport and Communications Ministry announced recently that it has lined up infrastructure works that will require investments of almost $16 billion until 2016. The works include new roads, ports, airports and telecommunications projects.
