Another mountain range is making its debut as the backdrop for a song-and-dance sequence in an Indian movie—if it made the editor’s cut, that is: the Andes in Peru, and the ruins of the Inca city of Machu Picchu located high amid those mountains.
Strictly speaking, we’re talking Kollywood not Bollywood, even if the latter has become the catch-all term overseas for all movies coming out of India. “Endhiran” (Robot), in which Tamil megastar Rajnikanth plays a scientist and a robot and which opens Friday, flew its stars to Peru to film one of the music scenes.
Fernando Astete, director of the Machu Picchu Archaelogical Park, recalled the shoot approximately two years ago.
“We have seen some Indian movies here,” said Mr. Astete. “It was the quintessential music that we see in those movies, with the man falling in love and courting the woman. There were also some Brazilian elements all mixed in. It was something quite exotic.”
The anthropologist said it was quite unusual to get a film crew like this. “Normally we get films about the discovery of Machu Picchu, the Discovery Channel, what was Machu Picchu like, films by National Geographic, that kind of thing,” said Mr. Astete. “The idea was to promote Peru in the vast market of India,” he said. Mr. Astete said the agency that markets tourism to Peru, Promperu, helped the film’s crew with the paperwork in order to be able to film there.
For instance, Peru — South America’s fastest-growing large economy — has excellent economic prospects with reasonable valuation levels.Until last year, investors could only buy into Peru through companies like gold miner Compania de Minas BuenaventuraADR (BVN_), copper miner Southern Copper (SCCO_), or the financial Credicorp ADR (BAP_). But iShares MSCI All Peru Capped Index Fund (EPU_) now offers a new way.
Granted, 20 years ago Peru struggled with raging hyperinflation and violent attacks by communist guerrilla groups. A lot has changed since then, and it’s set to grow 7% this year. Most economists can’t help but notice the difference — so should you.
Peru’s Commodity Advantage and More
Peru can trace its mining ties back to a time before the Inca Empire. That same tradition has helped push it into a successful economy today. Similarly, much of its future success relies on its exports of gold, copper and the like.Fortunately, global mining companies can’t seem to get enough of any of those. In all, they have $41 billion in investments planned there over the next decade. That should quadruple Peru’s copper exports, putting it neck-and-neck with Chile, the world’s biggest producer right now.
Along with mining, the country has other factors going for it, such as agriculture. In the past decade, such exports have surged from $300 million to $2.5 billion.
* Peru exports the world’s largest amount of asparagus.
* The country produces the most specialty coffees, paprika and organic bananas.
* It also reaps significant amounts of cocoa, sugar, artichokes, avocados and mangos.Right now, that sector only accounts for 8.3% of GDP, though it employs a third of the workforce. But it should grow fast with the introduction of superior farming methods such as drip irrigation. With strong sales in the first half of the year, revenue rose 19% over the same time in 2009 to $1.37 billion. That highlights Peru’s potential in the global agricultural market.
Technorati Tags: peru, agriculture, mining
Chef Gastón Acurio has a vision, and it permeates everything you see on the plate and in the decor at La Mar Cebicheria Peruana, the Peruvian restaurant that opened in September on Pier 1 1/2. The building frames calming views of San Francisco Bay on one side and skyscrapers on the other.Acurio has become an international celebrity chef with restaurants all over the globe, but this is his first in the United States. His vision, according to the restaurant’s Web site, is “to take the new concept of Peruvian cebicheria to the world.”
The building blocks of [Peruvian] cuisine, and the ingredients that show up repeatedly in both the traditional and contemporary dishes, are the chiles, particularly aji amarillo and rocoto; along with huacatay (often called black mint); and choclo, a big, starchy corn that resembles fattened hominy and is used in most ceviches and rice dishes. Many of these flavors also appear in the three sauces waiters put on the table when diners are seated.
Peru’s version of sashimi is tiraditos, but the raw slices of fish in such items as the kona kampachi ($15) are so heavily covered with aji amarillo, habanero and ginger sauce that the fish becomes almost a prop for textural contrast.
Peruvian food not only has Japanese influences but also incorporates flavors from Spain, Africa and China, which show up in iconic dishes like lomo saltado ($25), chunks of tender beef wok-seared with tomatoes, red onions and soy sauce, then topped with french fries.
Technorati Tags: peruvian food, cuisine, ceviche
The European Commission announced on Nov. 11 that talks for a trade pact between the EU and the Andean Community were officially over.E.U. External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Walder said that last-ditch efforts to forge a region-to-region agreement had failed, and that it was moving ahead with separate agreements with Colombia and Peru.
Since negotiations for the trade pact began in June 2007, Andean Community members Bolivia and Ecuador – both staunch opponents of free trade agreements – had opposed the pace and scope of the future pact, vying instead for individual stipulations to protect their smaller and developing markets compared with Peru and Colombia.
Peru and Colombia, both of which have signed free trade agreements with the United States and are in the process of pursuing other agreements with several countries, especially in Asia, pushed for a speedy conclusion to the talks, with our without their fellow Andean Community members.
Technorati Tags: trade
Peru expects to lure investments worth US$6 billion from Asia-Pacific economies despite tough global economic conditions after it hosts the region’s biggest gathering of leaders, ministers and top-ranking businessmen this week at its capital in Lima.It is also seeking to attract investments from Malaysia especially in value-added downstream oil palm activities, Peruvian Ambassador to Malaysia, Alejandro Gordillo Fernandez, told Bernama in an interview here, Sunday.
Fernandez said Peruvian President Allan Garcia Perez aims to impress that his country is a top-notch investment centre at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec)’s 16th summit and during official and private sector meetings.
Besides banking on a wide mineral base such as copper, gold, silver lead and tin, Peru has bright prospects for petroleum firms to exploit crude oil reserves both onshore and offshore, Fernandez said. Foreign investors could also look for opportunities in the construction, manufacturing, trade and services sectors which have been the most buoyant in the domestic market, he said.
Technorati Tags: apec
Amazing pictures of the Inca Trail, especially the picture below taken from Inti Punku – the sun gate entrance to Machu Picchu. It is amazing to be there at sunrise.
Boston.com
The U.S. House approved extending trade preferences for Colombia, Peru and more than 100 other developing nations, setting up a possible vote in the Senate this week.The bill, which would suspend $1 billion in tariffs, will continue for a year two separate measures that allow developing countries to ship their products duty-free to the U.S. The broader program applies to Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. A second measure applies to more than $32 billion of imports from 134 developing countries worldwide.
The House approved the bill unanimously, a move that puts pressure on Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, to agree to this extension. Grassley has criticized these measures and has said some large developing nations such as Brazil and India should be eliminated from the program.
If the measure becomes law, it would further ease pressure on lawmakers to pass long-delayed free-trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea and Panama.
Both the Andean trade program and the Generalized System of Preferences are set to expire at the end of this year. The Andean program allows those nations to export apparel and other goods to the U.S. duty free
Peru, Chile and Brazil are in the sweet spot.
San Jose Mercury News
Every segment of the mining industry and the companies that support it continue to enjoy great success with no end in sight despite trouble on Wall Street, industry leaders said Monday at a national conference and trade show.Much of the optimism can be attributed to the unprecedented demand from China and India, said Harold Quinn, president and CEO of the National Mining Association.
“The boom in worldwide mining activity and the equipment to bring those products to market has arguably been the biggest economic success story of the year,” he said at MINExpo International 2008, which opened Monday in Las Vegas. He expects the gathering to be the largest ever with more than 35,000 attendees—twice as many as the last such expo in 2004.
Timothy W. Sullivan, president and CEO of equipment manufacturer Bucyrus International Inc. and chairman of MINExpo 2008, said the record size of this year’s exhibition is an indication of the strong market conditions for mining and mining equipment.
“We’ve had an unprecedented run over the last few years, thanks largely to the developing world’s powerful and sustained demand for copper, gold, iron ore, coal and other products of mining,” he said. “We see nothing near term to dampen the bullish outlook.”
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Peru and Colombia, frustrated by slow region-to-region free trade talks between the EU and South America’s four Andean countries, have formally asked Brussels to pursue swifter bilateral negotiations with them.The free-market presidents of Peru and Colombia made the proposal this month, trade officials told Reuters, underscoring their split with Bolivia and Ecuador, whose leftist leaders are more wary of liberalising trade with Europe.
The EU has long favoured negotiating free trade deals on a region-to-region basis as it tries to replicate its multilateral model around the world and to foster bigger, regional markets that are more attractive to its exporters.
But time is running short as the term of the European Commission, the EU’s executive, is due to end in November 2009.
The United States has already negotiated a trade deal with Colombia but it has been blocked by opposition in Congress. A U.S.-Peru trade deal is due to come into force in January.
Technorati Tags: trade
This whole talk of currency instability is slightly dated. In the 80s and early 90s, when debt was denominated in $ currencies came under pressure from rapid FDI outflows – 80s era of hyperinflation comes to mind.
With the spectacular increase in commodity prices, starting in 2001, many countries in LatAm have been able to build substantial current account surpluses, add to their currency reserves and re-denominate debt in local currency. This had provided needed currency stability. Its amazing to know that the Brazilian real which was effectively worthless at the end of the 80s is now the only foreign currency holding of Warren Buffett!
Analysis-Markets-The Economic Times
In a bid to spur Indian medium scale companies to take advantage of foreign markets, India Trade Promotion Organisation is exploring opportunities in Latin American countries.“There is investment potential in certain Latin American countries for Indian Inc. Big players like Tatas, Godrej, Mahindra and Mahindra, Aditya Birla group have already made their presence felt in sectors like IT, FMCG, auto, fibre etc. But the presence of mid size companies can hardly be felt,” said V Narayanan, manager, ITPO.
According to Narayanan, mid size companies can find fortunes in engineering goods, chemical products, textile, plastic products, pharmaceuticals, artificial jewelery & cosmetic articles, to generate good profit margins.
US and UK-based products are being sold at a higher price in countries like Chile, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico whereas Indian companies can offer almost the same quality product at a cheaper rate, ITPO is of opinion.“A couple of other factors also create a conducive environment for Indian mid-size companies. Those are cultural similarities and similar taste of foods. This can result in a sizable demand for Indian products,” Narayanan said.
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