GLOBALIZATION IN PERU

Globalization is a term that can be understood as an innovative initial phase of a centennial

process of internationalization in different aspects that began during the last decades of the
20th century, which generated changes at the monetary, exchange rate, energy, commercial,
social and technological level.

This globalization process consists of the growing integration of the different national
economies into a single world market economy which will depend on economic growth,
technological advance and human connectivity; globalization in turn is a process by which
companies have a competitive position, not only at the national level but also at the regional
and global level.

According to Braulio López (2002), globalization has led to a new international and
domestic internal political configuration. The political transformations that our country has
undergone in the last two decades have had to do with this phenomenon called
globalization.

Our country is not alien to this process, in Peru it can be said that globalization is a process
of liberalization of the movement of capital, goods and services. Since the beginning of the
90s, a development model based on competition was adopted that aims for economic
activity in the country to be regulated by the markets.

The process continued with trade agreements and has been deepened with the Economic
Complementation Agreements and Free Trade Agreements (FTA) signed by Peru, in which
goods and services are subject to free trade.

While it is true, there are important advantages in globalization, mainly in economic and
cultural exchange, which enrich people with information and opportunities that were not
known until recently. However, globalization also presents significant degrees of
uncertainty and risks not yet measured, such as: reactions of excessive nationalism,
economic protectionism, overexploitation of resources, etc.

However, despite these risks, Peru has relations with more than a hundred countries; it has
signed economic agreements with regions and countries (of economic complementation and
free trade agreements); It has active participation in international, regional and sub-regional
instances (UN Security Council, O.I.T., Inter-American Commission on Human Rights,
World Inter-Parliamentary Union); he is proactive in favor of international security and the
inclusion of the poorest and promoter of the Summit initiative to combat poverty and
hunger; It has hosted worldwide events (ALCUE Summit and APEC Summit, 2008).

Thanks to the exports of primary goods driven by trade relations abroad, Peru has improved
its macroeconomic indices and is beginning to stand out for its economic dynamism. Trade
openness (sum of exports and imports as a percentage of GDP) grew from 26% in 2000 to
32.7% in 2004; Peruvians' per capita income has improved between 2001 and 2008, and
poverty rates have also begun to decline. (but maintains imbalances or inequalities in
income distribution).

All this makes Peru occupy the 58th place in the world ranking of globalization 2007.

With globalization there have been substantial changes in the structure of economic
activity, with serious repercussions on the organization of the territory, these
transformations are observed through changes in sectors of economic activity and spatial
transformations (urban regional and also rural).

The global changes that have occurred in the last thirty years, influence the conception of
the concept of region and what happens in them, the world economic geography is
organized in global networks of decision and exchange, whose points of confluence are the
cities, is In other words, the cities in the different regions play a leading role in the
relationships that exist in the different territories, in such a way that worldwide cities such
as New York, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Tokyo, etc., have a great commercial influence
and policy on regions of other countries of the world

What happens worldwide is reflected in the interior regions of our countries, in such a way
that in the regional spaces of each country there are governing cities of each region. In
Peru, the globalization process incorporates Metropolitan Lima and the main macro-
regional cities such as Arequipa, Trujillo and regional cities such as Chiclayo, Piura,
Cajamarca, Huancayo, Cusco, Iquitos, among others. Each department-region has main
cities that influence the surrounding territories.

For example, Lima and the regional metropolises are attractive for investments - linked to
the service sector and the industrial sector. In these cities there are multiple specialized
centers and networks of informational, industrial, commercial and cultural activities, which
generate a high density of activities and flows of capital and information.

Cities considered competitive attract foreign investment in manufacturing sectors. Other

investments are aimed at generating business and producing goods for export. In Peru,
investments are made in cities with manufacturing, capital also reaches the financial sector.
There is a trend to invest in training and education centers as well as in areas of research
and technological development.

Different regions and cities experience globalization differently. The regions that grow, not
necessarily developing, are those that have been able to insert well into the world economy
through their renewable or non-renewable natural resources, export processes associated
with light manufacturing industry through metropolitan centers linked to the world
economy by services financial, commercial and tourism. Four sets of regional spaces are
distinguished: convergent, winning, stagnant and declining.
Metropolitan Lima is the place of concentration of innovative and dynamic economic
activities (financial services, production, and new sources of growth in the urban market). It
is the global city in projection, the city is globalized, the process is translated into a new
organization and metropolitan spatial hierarchy.

Globalization has some important aspects, some are beneficial for our country and others
are not. I considered 5 aspects: Economic, Education, Society, Technology and the last one
Environment.

 Economic, for example in this aspect we can find benefits because thanks to
globalization our country reduced poverty thanks to exports, tourism and
international agreements.

 Education, is a great advance since there are many options today to be able to study
in other countries, or to know and have international courses virtually and in this
way students will be able to learn many languages, different cultures and have more
opportunities to develop thanks to the exchanges offered by universities in other
countries.

 Society, here it is important to recognize that thanks to globalization, many

retrogressive ideas in our country have changed as the LGT community, on the
other hand, tourism and exchanges have changed.

 Technology, in Peru has brought advantages and disadvantages since, although it is

true, technology has advanced a lot and helps both in communications and in
companies, for example cell phones, laptops, machinery for companies, etc. The
disadvantages are that this can generate unemployment in our country, since in
certain cases it reduces the workforce.

 Environment, this aspect is one of the most important since we can see that
globalization has affected in terms of over-exploitation of natural resources, the
cutting of trees in the Amazon, the construction of tunnels and roads, sometimes
interfering with nature, animal trafficking, environmental and marine pollution.

But not everything that this process encompasses is beneficial for our country, for example
a well-known conflict took place in Arequipa, due to the imminent sale of two State
electricity generating companies, a process already well-established in the government's
privatization calendar. , Arequipa’s took to the streets and held protests, the local airport
was paralyzed for several days, forcing tourists to extend their stay and leading some local
authorities to launch hunger strikes against privatization. The government's reaction to the
protests was disastrous. After unsuccessfully attempting a police response, the government
established a "negotiating" commission whose sole purpose, apparently, was to capitulate
in less than 24 hours and hand over everything to the mayor of Arequipa, Juan Manuel
Guillén. The privatizations in question were stopped and Peru's overall privatization
program was suspended. And, of course, the government issued an official apology to the
good people of Arequipa.

However, one of the biggest problems faced today is foreign debt, this is one of the most
important problems of the peoples of the world, the Citizen Network for the Abolition of
External Debt (2002), Spanish NGO, He defines it as the money that the countries of the
South owe to the banks to the countries of the North and to the financial institutions, as a
consequence of the loans that their governments received in the past and which they cannot
afford today. This indebtedness, in most cases, was generated in the 1970s, when surplus
liquidity, a product of petrodollars, allowed the banks to offer loans at low interest rates and
on relatively favorable conditions, and then in the 1980s sharply raising interest rates
making the debt unplayable. Many of these credits were used for the purchase of weapons
and the maintenance of dictatorial and corrupt governments.

Currently, debt is constantly growing, and it has doubled in the last ten years, causing
nearly 150 countries to use figures close to 50% of their national budgets to pay off external
debt, of which it is estimated that half They are not for amortization of capital but for
payment of interest and penalties, for example At the end of the 90s, Peru had an external
debt of 25,557.98 million dollars, fifteen years later, 2015, the debt reached 41,550 million
dollars. Debt has become the biggest ethical and political problem for today's society.
While our governments are struggling to pay commitments made in earlier times, the social
debt grows, which is expressed in deterioration and low coverage of basic services, such as
education and health.

In conclusion, over time we can see that globalization has made great impacts on our
country, both good and bad too, well because thanks to this development we can make the
cultural, economic and social diversity of our country known, as well large businesses for
macro and micro entrepreneurs and bad because excess imports leads to an over-
exploitation of resources and also generates other bigger problems such as foreign debt.