DANPER’S FOUNDER AND CEO ROSARIO BAZÁN’S OPENING REMARKS AT CADE’S INDEPENDENCE BICENTENNIAL.

16 November, 2021

Opening remarks at CADE Executives 2021

By Rosario Bazán, president of CADE Executives 2021

Welcome to the participants and exhibitors who will have a leading and transcendent role in the Bicentennial CADE where we will hear All Voices for One Peru.

Chairing this edition is an honor that I accepted with great responsibility more than six months ago, to confirm my strong commitment to the development of my country.

CADE 2021 takes place in a challenging year: bicentennial of independence, a new administration, and polarization and fragmentation fueled by health, social, political, economic and moral crises.

I took on this challenge to promote a space for dialogue and reflection, within a framework of respect and plurality to put public policies and actions on the agendas of the public and private sectors to promote inclusive growth in our country.

To set up the Organizing Committee, I convened a group of businessmen, sociologists, political analysts and professionals holding different points of view and ideologies, but with one element common to all of them: their commitment and love for Peru!

We agreed that this edition should be different in its diverse, inclusive and participatory nature. To be a forum to listen to each other, debate and propose meeting points on relevant issues such as reactivting the economy, creating jobs, governance and democracy building, returning to school, and education and health to build the inclusive, prosperous and sustainable Peru that we all yearn.

CADE meetings started at a time when the health of my father, Pepito Bazán, an educator from Celendín province who was deeply committed to our country and held an inclusive vision founded the night school and the Celendín Pedagogical Institute for teacher training. He was persuaded that education is the essential foundation for the progress of people and Peru. With his example of life and actions, he instilled in me values ​​and principles that have made my personal purpose to transcend myself to have a positive impact on the lives of others.

In his last days, before he died two months ago, at the age of 99, his greatest concern was not his illness, but to understand how we Peruvians will get ourselves out of the difficult and complex situation that our country is going through. His aspiration was for us to work together toward the single purpose to solve the problems we share, while respecting our differences.

In Peru there are  millions of people like my father committed to our country, who have cultivated in us values ​​leading us to act ethically and beyond our self-interests. I want to recognize the millions of mothers, fathers and all those people who have instilled in us principles and values ​​to make us honest and bigger than our problems.

Now our task is to drive our country forward, and toward the truly great revolution we need which is:

– to build leadership with a single vision of common objectives that talks to and connects with the realities of Peru.

– to instill in current and future generations the need and responsibility to be upright and competent.

– and to adopt a life purpose that transcends us, to build a country that creates development opportunities for all its citizens.

 

In the current situation, the political, economic, and social actors, each one in their own roles to act, must resolve with a sense of urgency, the urgent priorities that negatively impact the quality of life of the people, the competitiveness. of its productive sectors and the sustainability of our nation.

Therefore, it is imperative for the State to assure the institutional setup, governance and political, macroeconomic, social and legal stability and to establish clear agendas and enabling conditions to guarantee responsible private investment that creates formal and dignified employment.

It must also manage effective public policies that meet the needs and legitimate demands of the population to access basic services for human development, including water, sanitation, health, education, security and connectivity, and thus close social and productive gaps.

It is urgent for Congress to fulfill its legislative and oversight work, putting the interests of the country before partisan interests. Likewise, the President of Peru and the President of the Council of Ministers must ensure that the professionals appointed to public administration are upright and competent to ensure transparent and efficient public administration,, and that the benefit of the economic growth resulting from private investment reaches all Peruvians and translates into social advancement.

Moreover, it is an inescapable obligation of companies to respect the human and labor rights of their workers and transcend their financial objectives by combining the three economic, social, and environmental vectors of sustainability.

Likewise, they must reject bribery, corruption and the financing of illicit activities and money laundering, and promote the adoption of values, and ethical and anti-corruption standards in our companies and the institutions where we are involved.

Only in this way will we be able to reduce structural informality and the overwhelming poverty that affects a third of our population, that is, 10 million Peruvians, and strengthen institutions to build a more just, inclusive and prosperous society.

I believe that it is necessary to highlight the active role of change agents that responsible private companies have in Peru, to foster inclusive growth through their entrepreneurial and innovative spirit that allows them to be competitive and provide dignified and decent employment and development opportunities for their workers, families and communities.

The leaders of small, medium, and large companies are essential players in the economic reactivation of our country, for the sustained abatement of poverty, and as the main driver of Peru’s economy. Let us feel proud of having made our country a world reference in various fields such as tourism, gastronomy, agribusiness, fishing, and formal mining, among others.

However, we must recognize that the benefits of economic growth that we have generated in recent decades have not reached millions of Peruvians, since it has not translated into true social development due to poor management and harmful corruption in both the public and private spheres that should not go unpunished.

Nor have we prioritized inclusive growth that requires economic growth and social progress to go hand in hand; nor have we set ourselves to the task of measuring social progress as responsible Peruvian citizens. We need to be able to measure our country’s progress not only through GDP growth, but also through human development indicators. Only in this way are we going to achieve social peace, which is an essential ingredient to achieve the inclusive growth and sustainable development that we desire for our people, our companies and our country.

We will address these issues at CADE 2021. The objective is to move from dialogue, debate and proposals to action, to contribute to building a single country agenda.

CADE is inclusive, participatory and representative. It transcends the business sphere, convening various social, economic, political, academic and civil society actors from different regions, to create points of convergence having the building of better country as a shared goal. CADE will be a convergent private-public forum. Successful experience sharing from across Peru and Latin America will show us that it is possible to achieve transparent, effective and collaborative alliances between the public and private sectors to remove the impediments that hinder the inclusive growth of our nation.

We will promote a management model based on the creation of shared value that connects the efficiency and economic profitability of companies with the progress of their workers, and increases their competitiveness while improving the economic and social conditions of our communities. As responsible business leaders, we gage the success of our companies not only through economic indicators, but also through the impact we have on the quality

We especially welcome the participation of the President of Peru, the President of the Council of Ministers, the Minister of Economy and Finance, the President of Congress and the President of the Central Reserve Bank, whose presence reveals the importance of CADE’s purpose as a space of dialogue and reflection, to build bridges and articulate efforts in order to get the country out of this complex crossroads.

CADE in this Bicentennial of Peru’s independence must mobilize us to take charge of the present and future of our country, from our respective standpoints and to act, once and for all without excuses.