on Saturday affirmed that economic resources to attend to heavy rains emergency will not be lacking.
Within that framework, the high-ranking official affirmed the Government's intention is to attend to all citizens affected by this situation registered in various Peruvian regions.
In this sense, the Cabinet member indicated that measures are being taken to mitigate the impact of rains, attending to about 20,000 affected people. He added the goal is "to reach out to 60,000; we are reinforcing the (Peruvian) State's capacity."
"There is no lack of resources, nor will there be any lack of them. Peru is a country with fiscal discipline and responsible management of resources; thus, we have close to S/12 billion (about US$3.165 billion) that regional and local governments can use to attend to the emergency," he said in remarks to Radio National.
Minister Contreras specified that progress is also being made on management issues. Therefore, he will convene regional governors next week with the purpose of possibly financing measures "that enable us to get prepared for El Niño (phenomenon) in the short term."
The high-ranking official specified that more than 900 regional and local government officials have been under training since last week so that they can use their funds and resources, thus supporting these authorities and providing them with assistance.
"Thinking about attending to this emergency, we have asked the Congress of the Republic for the possibility of adding more resources to the contingency reserve, S/3.5 billion (about US$923 million) additional to the resources it already relies on in order to have cash and access emergency items to attend to the affected population," he specified.
The minister indicated that the supplementary credit requested from Parliament is worth around S/8 billion (about US$2.110 billion), of which S/4.5 billion (about US$1.187 billion) will serve to finance measures by the Con Punche Peru Plan, measures and projects that the Government is prioritizing; and the rest of resources to finance new measures.
"The objective is to attend to those affected, restore economic activities, and begin to get prepared for what is to come, which may be much more challenging," he concluded.