Living in Peru : your everyday companion

By Jobana Soto

Vietnam president Nguyen Minh Triet sees a profitable future with Peru as he announced this week he would like to see Vietnam enhance its economic, trade and investment ties with the Andean country.

While meeting with Peruvian Ambassador Carlos Velasco in Hanoi this week, both parties agreed each country can benefit by finding common ground and working together.

That common ground just happens to be oil. Peru is selling it and Vietnam wants a piece of the pie. In an effort to become an official oil exporter by 2010, Peru is auctioning off its oil reserves to bidders around the world.

Vietnam’s oil company, Petro Vietnam Exploration Production Corporation (PVEP), recently won a contract with Peru National Petroleum Company (PeruPetro SA) to exploit oil and gas resources from Block 162, located in Peru’s Ucayali oil field. Official contract signing is still underway, with PVEP actively preparing to begin the project once official documents are signed.

This marks PVEP’s second deal with PeruPetro, the first being exploring and exploiting oil and gas in Trujillo. Peru’s Deputy Energy Minister, Pedro Gamio said both projects totals Vietnam's investment in Peru to about US$800 million.

In addition to oil, Peruvian Ambassador Carlos Velasco hopes to increase their technology and science developments together with Vietnam. He also conveyed President Alan García Pérez's invitation to President Triet to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation (APEC) meetings in Lima this November.

Together with Vietnam, Peru plans on boosting ties with other APEC economies while securing investment and social impact opportunities.