Lima 2013 Blog: Remarks - Peru's Minister of Foreign Affairs Eda Rivas and AS/COA President and CEO Susan Segal

By
Luisa Leme

In welcoming remarks, Susan Segal and Eda Rivas introduced the topic of the conference, with the foreign minister noting the need for innovation to avoid wasting resources. 

Speakers:

  • Susan Segal, President and CEO, Americas Society/Council of the Americas
  • Eda Rivas, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Peru

The AS/COA Latin American Cities Conference "Peru: Strenghtening and Investing in Water Management" kicked off this Friday morning at the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Lima. 

AS/COA President and CEO Susan Segal's remarks covered Peru's development, mentioning the country expected growth of 5.6 percent for this year—much higher than the 2.7 percent forecast for Latin America overall—and the shrinking number of people living in poverty: "According to the Inter-American Development Bank, half of Peruvian families are now in the middle class."

Introducing the subject of this eighth Latin American Cities Conference in the country, her speech explained that better water management is another important component for the country's direction towards growth. "Water programs and policies that are innovative, effective and socially inclusive are needed to face the access challenges in Peru, and boost the country's competitiveness and growth," she explained.

Peru's Minister of Foreign Affairs Eda Rivas talked about an important element of this equation: climate change. Rivas said that Peru is the third-most vulnerable country when it comes to climate change effects, even though it remains a source of many natural resources.

"We are used to having many natural resources. Now we have to be more innovative to stop wasting them," said Rivas. The minister also announced that Peru has commited to hosting the COP20 in 2014, a UN conference on climate change public policies.

Watch their remarks (en español):
Start time 23:41 second