Peru’s former President inaugurates CIIM lecture hall in Cyprus

Dr Alejandro Toledo, former President of Peru, President of the Centre for Democracy and Development in Latin America and a Distinguished Fellow at Stanford University, was the first speaker to present a public lecture in the newly refurbished CIIM lecture hall.

Dr Toledo’s lecture was entitled “The Enterprising Presidency: Mobilizing Business for Economic Growth and Social Change” and it covered the central themes to Toledo’s government: the fight against poverty through sustainable enterprises that create new jobs, rather than through handouts and food-aid programmes, and the luring of foreign investment in his country to create new wealth.

Sustainable enterprises – argued Dr Toledo – provide the less affluent countries with the means for growth and development and are therefore key agents of socioeconomic change.

The former Peruvian president who was born in poverty, had managed to rise to power against all odds by having the opportunity to study, with scholarships, at top American universities. He was the first democratically elected president of indigenous descent in Peru in 500 years.

During his lecture, Dr Toledo stressed his firm commitment in fighting poverty through economic growth and in helping provide quality health care and sound education for all disadvantaged people in Latin America, as a means to achieve economic growth and – eventually – prosperity for all.