PERU Roadshow Seeking UK Rail Expertise to Return After 150 Years

LONDON, May 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Today the ProInversion UK roadshow comes to an end, after a whirlwind visit to Manchester and London. Executive Director, Javier Illescas arrived early this week in Manchester to meet with several UK companies organized by UKTI Northwest. Among these, were small and medium enterprises from the waste management, software, and other infrastructure related sectors. When in London Mr. Illescas met with senior Editors from The Economist and Financial Times, as well as various railway industry publications, to promote investment opportunities in Peru within the UK.

Jose Zarate, ProInversion's principal advisor on Railways, accompanied Mr. Illescas and they took part in Infrarail 2014, a London based Railway Industry Show to meet with key representatives from the sector. The purpose of these meetings was to develop important relations with railway companies in light of the great investments that Peru is making into its railway transportation sector, in particular the Line 3 and 4 of the Lima Metro system.

ProInversion has granted the concession for the first underground metro line in Lima city (Line 2) which pledged more than U.S.$ 5.6 billion in investments, managing not only to improve the infrastructure and operating conditions of the network, but also the beginning of the construction of a modern system of public transport in Lima. Lines 3 and 4 are in the beginning of the procurement process, due to be awarded in 2016.

About the roadshow, Mr. Illescas commented, "Our visit to the UK was a great opportunity to meet with key representatives from the railway industry and to promote the huge investment that Peru is making in our local transport system. UK companies have a deep knowledge in the sector and have been historically linked to Peru railways, 150 years ago when they build the existing railways. We are hoping to attract their expertise once again and to get them on board with what is going to be the biggest transformation and improvement of Peru's transport ever."

On Wednesday and Thursday Mr. Illescas visited the Crossrail Rail Links and later met with investors and asset managers interested in Peru. He spoke to them about the many opportunities for investment in Peru and specific infrastructure projects in the energy, transport, sanitation, among other sectors. The attendants showed interest in the bidding process for projects and shared their views on how to facilitate the procedure in order to make investment easier and faster for UK companies. To finalize the Road Show, Illescas met with the Deputy Chief Executive of the London Chamber of Commerce.

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Rodolfo Milesi
Founder of Branding Latin America
E-mail: rmilesi@brandinglatinamerica.com 
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