In an interview the President of Peru Ollanta Humala said there were no proven health risks from base station antennas and highlighted a bill before the parliament which will improve the ability to site antennas in the country.
In the lengthy interview – with the newspaper Diario 16 (Daily 16) – to mark the end of his third year in office, President Humula discussed a range of political, economic, social and community issues including base station deployment in Peru.
In a discussion about what the Government was doing to shore up economic development and investment in infrastructure President Humala highlighted that his government had reviewed a bill that would improve the ability for carriers to site base station antennas. The Plenary session of the National Congress recently passed the bill and it will go to Executive to be enacted.
The President also said that although there was public concern that antennas could cause a number of diseases it has been proven that this wasn’t correct.
Peru has investment problems, he said, because there is a problem with cellular communications due to a lack of good quality coverage.
In his first term the President has focused heavily on economic reform in Peru and has previously announced a package of measures to boost investment in the country.
The measures were designed to streamline the bureaucratic processes that surround environmental and heritage assessments, so as to remove any obstacles to private sector investment.
“The international situation is complex, but we are convinced that we will overcome it by taking concrete measures to ensure the country’s economic growth. The national economy will continue to be managed in a transparent way while maintaining the strong macroeconomic framework. We believe it is important to build confidence to attract private investments,” he said.
President Humala has stressed the importance of speeding up private investment as they currently represent 80 percent of total investments in the country.
“We have decided to declare investments in the country to be of national interest,” said the Peruvian leader.
The president also said the government is pushing reforms to facilitate the development of infrastructure projects.
The 2014 economic outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean is uninspiring, with GDP forecast to grow by only 2.5%, well behind the projected global average of 3.6%.
“Although 2015 is expected to be a more favourable year for the region, GDP growth will still be almost one percentage point behind the global average: 3.0% as opposed to the world’s 3.9%,” Marketwatch recently announced.
“The region’s best performers in 2014/2015 will be Panama, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Colombia, where GDP growth is expected to top 4.5%.”