Oscar Mendoza, Dean of the School of Economists of Cajamarca, stated that the transfers of the mining sector from local purchases and employment are more significant than the transfers from fiscal redistribution (canon minero) and royalties as they are greater in quantity and are free from all the governmental processes for their approval and referral to the local authorities.

At Rumbo a PERUMIN – Consensus for the progress of Cajamarca, he explained that the higher that investments and acquisitions are, more sustainable jobs are created in the medium term, which leads to an improvement in real income and poverty reduction.

“This impact is verified within a 150-kilometer radius of a mining operation and among the populations that showed increases in their real income of 5% to 20%”, he commented.

Thus, he specified that when a large-scale mining project is set in motion, there is great demand of sustainable employment and, therefore, resources are generated and transferred, raising income levels, increasing expenditure and, consequently, the people are able to meet their basic needs, thus reducing poverty.

He also added that for each 1% that private investment grows in one year, the proportion of population with at least one basic need unmet decreases by 0.54%, which leads us to conclude that the more investment, the less poverty.

 Education is key for regional development

Furthermore, he pointed out that one of the mainstays for the development of Cajamarca is education; nevertheless, he contextualized that it took the region 10 years to increase by 10% the working population (PEA) of Cajamarca with some level of higher education.

“At this pace, it will take 9 years to be in the average of the Andean population, 19 years to reach the average of Peru, and 52 years to reach the average of Lima and Callao. This is not sustainable!”, he complained.

Oscar Mendoza also expressed his concern about the low school population and that 60% of the total is lagging behind in their preparation. The school universe currently consists of 416,206 students.