CAF promotes tourism in Cusco

CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, supports the regional government of Cusco for the improvement of the procedures to obtain the necessary licenses, permits, and inspections to open and operate tourism businesses in the cities of Cusco and Urubamba, in the Secret Valley of the Incas. 

Eleonora Silva Pardo, CAF's Director Representative in Peru, and Rene Concha Lezama, President of the  Regional Government of Regional Government of Cusco, signed a technical cooperation agreement that promotes competitiveness and sustainable development in the region, taking advantage of one of its main assets. 

After highlighting that tourism is one of the main tools to promote inclusive growth in the region, Silva Pardo pointed out that this initiative seeks to facilitate and promote investment and productive development, as well and entrepreneurial growth in this area of the country's southern mountains, particularly for micro and small enterprises. 

Silva Pardo stated that the improvements in the sector will include a re-engineering of the current processes, a review of the regulatory framework, the implementation of a new computer system for the issue of the licenses and permits required to open and operate tourism businesses, and a dissemination campaign to inform and empower the citizenship regarding the proposed reform. 

The project will also provide better trained staff and service providers to execute the new procedures and administrative services in the framework of the national policies and regulations, under an approach focused on providing better services to the citizenship. 

CAF's Director Representative in Peru underlined that this important initiative seeks to facilitate a process to create dynamic competitive advantages in Cusco by means of coordinating work between the local and regional governments, and Dircetur and Nacional, through Mincetur; the Organización de Gestión de Destino Cusco - OGD Cusco, the Chambers of Commerce and Tourism, as well as other private sector actors in addition to international cooperation such as the Swiss Cooperation (Seco) and the International Financial Cooperation (IFC), member of the World Bank group and the project's executing agency. 

After thanking CAF's, support, Concha Lezama highlighted that the support of the multilateral financial entity is of great importance as "it will allow the execution of the Development Program for the Improvement of Businesses in the Tourism Sector which is essential to build a tourism cluster in Cusco aimed at the development of the sector in the region". 

Alvaro Quijandria, manager of the International Financial Corporation (IFC) and World Bank's (BM) Investment Climate Program in Latin America and the Caribbean, said they "welcome CAF's  support for this project that will have a high impact on Cusco's tourism industry, which is essential for the generation of employment and opportunities in the region".