Peru’s President Ollanta Humala was in Toronto Thursday night to be honored as "Statesman of the Year" bestowed by the Canadian Council of the Americas (CCA).
Attending the award-giving ceremony, President Humala thanked the accolade which is giving out annually by the said institution and considered the award as recognition of the Andean nation and its people.
“I am deeply grateful and accept this honor, not for myself, but as a representative of all my national fellows,” he said addressing the audience at the opening of the dinner at the Ritz-Carlton.
“This is a prize for Peru which strives daily to develop the potential of its resources given by nature and to achieve a fairer society driven by the respect to freedom, democracy and equal opportunities,” the Peruvian leader noted in his speech.
Likewise, Humala ratified his administration’s pledge on building a modern Peru, with development and social inclusion. “An aim which requires an appropriate international insertion in the fields of investment, market access, integration and cooperation,” he said.
Furthermore, he noted Peru is an emerging country within a new pole of production and demand, and added the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has double over the last decade, while its exports have seen a three-fold increase, despite the global financial crisis.
"The most cautious forecasts indicate Peru will continue to lead regional economic expansion during 2014 with a growth rate of between 5.5 percent and 6 percent, while private investment is likely to record an increase of nearly 8 percent," Humala added.
Likewise, the head of the Andean nation's administration said the Peruvian democracy is being consolidated within a context where poverty rate has been cut by half, which adds to the government’s ongoing efforts to further deepen the strengthening and expansion of the country’s middle class.
President Ollanta Humala is a recipient of the CCA’s prestigious Statesman of the Year Award for 2013. His April 2014 visit to Toronto came at the end of a three-day long trip to Canada, where he was first received in Ottawa by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
(END) MDV/ASH/LOG
Published: 4/11/2014