Peruvian lawmakers, business officials visit Utah to bolster commercial ties

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

A contingent of Peruvian lawmakers and business officials is visiting Utah to strengthen commercial ties with the United States
China has a major presence in Peru, but the Peruvian visitors say Chinese operators can be unreliable and problematic, factoring in the trip.
The visitors are investigating potential for collaboration in the mining sector and public transportation.

SALT LAKE CITY — With China increasingly managing development initiatives in Peru, a contingent of lawmakers and businessmen from the South American nation is in Utah, hoping to bolster ties with the United States.

"The main objective is to strengthen commercial trade between Peru and the United States," said Silvia Monteza, a member of Peru's Congress. The United States has traditionally been an influential power in Peru, she said, but that has faded some, "and now we want to strengthen that commercial relationship."

The contingent of around 20 — members of Peru's Congress, business leaders, public transportation officials, mayors and others — traveled to Utah on Monday and met Tuesday with Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson at the state Capitol. They visited the Stadler Rail facility in Salt Lake City and plan to meet with representatives from mining giant Rio Tinto and other Utah companies and entities before leaving on Friday.

China's increasing presence as a player in development in Peru and the rest of South America is becoming "a challenge for them," said David Utrilla, originally from Peru but now a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Utah. The Peruvian Consulate in Salt Lake City helped organize the visit, and Utrilla, a liaison from the Utah Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity, is helping host the Peruvian contingent.

Miguel Quispe, right, a Peruvian businessman, during a visit to the state Capitol in Salt Lake City with other Peruvian government and business officials on Tuesday. They are on a trade mission to Utah. (Photo: Tim Vandenack, KSL.com)

"What they are trying to do is to diversify, and they are looking at the United States as a good partner that can be a good place to diversify," said Utrilla.

The Peruvian officials are only visiting Utah, he said, and the trip comes on the heels of a September visit to Peru by a group of Utah businessmen interested in exploring opportunities in the South American nation's mining sector. Indeed, exploring possible partnerships with mining firms operating in Utah in exploration and extraction of minerals in Peru is one of the key aims of the trade mission. "The main partner right now for this type of work is China. They want to change that," Utrilla said.

Karol Paredes Fonseca, another member of the Peruvian Congress, said public transportation is a "serious issue" in Peru, and getting insights from Utah is another focus of the visit. One key issue is securing financing to upgrade the fleet of diesel-powered buses serving Lima, Peru's capital, so they run on natural gas instead.

Other focuses for the visitors include bolstering university ties between Peru and Utah, investigating financing options and exploring ways Peruvian businesses can aid U.S. businesses interested in operating in Peru. The mayors on the trip are hoping to get insights from local leaders on contending with crime, health care and other issues.

Through it all, though, concern with the unreliability of Chinese developers in Peru came up again and again, underscoring the goal of promoting increased U.S.-Peruvian collaboration. Chinese developers can be unreliable, several members of the Peruvian contingent said, halting work before projects are finished. What's more, Chinese government officials will replace Chinese business officials when projects go awry, further hampering completion of projects and accountability.

U.S. operators, by contrast, are typically trustworthy and comply with the terms of the deals they make, said Monteza. "Peru's doors are open, and we hope to keep strengthening the bilateral relationship that we've always had," she said.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.