María Antonieta Alva

María Antonieta Alva Luperdi (born 7 March 1985) is Peruvian public administrator who is the current Minister of Economy and Finance since October 2019.[1] Alva previously served at various departments in the Peruvian government, mainly the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Education.

María Antonieta Alva
Minister of Economy and Finance
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 October 2019
President	Martín Vizcarra
Prime Minister	Vicente Zeballos Pedro Cateriano
Deputy	Mario Arróspide Medina (Economy) Juan Carlos Chávez Cuentas (Finance)
Preceded by	Carlos Oliva Neyra
Personal details
Born	(1985-03-07) March 7, 1985 Lima, Peru
Nationality	Peruvian
Political party	Independent
Alma mater	University of the Pacific (BA) John F. Kennedy School of Government (MPA/ID)
Occupation	Public administrator

Early life and education

Born in Lima, Peru on March 7, 1985, María Antonieta Alva Luperdi is the daughter of Jorge Elías Alva Hurtado, current Rector of the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería[2], and María Antonieta Luperdi Brito. She completed her high school at the Colegio Villa María in the city of Lima.

She pursued her undergraduate studies at the Universidad del Pacífico, where she served as president of the Student Center.[3] She was general director (2005 to 2007) of the civil association Coherencia, an intercollegiate political organization.[4] She graduated in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in Economics.[5]

Alva attained a Master's in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University,[6] which she accessed after obtaining the Fullbright and Mary Jo Bane scholarships (2012-2014). She also completed an internship at the Pratham Foundation Aser Center in New Delhi, India, as part of Harvard's Women and Public Policy program. In the same way, she took Leadership programs at Georgetown University.

Career

In her last year of college, Alva joined the Peruvian Ministry of Economy and Finance as an assistant and analyst in the Public Investment Department, and later in the Public Budget Department, in 2007.

In 2012, she transferred to the newly created Ministry of Development and Social Inculsion, where she served analyst at the Office of the Deputy Minister.

Following her graduation from Harvard, Alva was appointed to the Ministry of Education as coordinator of Management Tools for Results, head of the Programming Unit, and finally in 2015, Head of the Budget and Planning Office.[7]

She returned to the Ministry of Economy and Finance in 2017 as advisor to the Public Investment Department. She ultimately was appointed Director General of Public Budget of the Ministry.[8]

Academically, she has taught at a graduate level at the School of Administration of the National University of San Marcos.[9]

Minister of Economy and Finance

María Antonieta Alva in January 2020 at an emergency summit led by president Vizcarra.

On 3 October 2019, she was appointed Minister of Economy and Finance, as part of the new cabinet led by Vicente Zeballos, in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Peruvian Congress by president Martín Vizcarra.[10]

In the context of the coronavirus disease pandemic, under her leadership, the Ministry of Economy and Finance activated an economic plan to mitigate the impacts of the health situation on the national economy, work that was recognized by some international media such as France 24, Infobae, and Bloomberg.[11]

Within the same framework, Congress began to discuss a bill to allow contributors to the Private Pension System to have 25% of their contributions to combat the crisis; However, Minister Alva was against the bill because in order to achieve this, the Pension Fund Administrators Association (AFP) would have to sell assets to obtain liquidity. The minister even said that at one extreme, this measure could break the financial system.[12]

In order to get ahead, the financial system needs to remain healthy. Measures related to CTS, AFPs, with banking interests, cannot be massive because in an extreme scenario we could also break the financial system (...) That money [AFP funds] is not liquid, it is invested in treasury bonds. It is a terrible time to do something massive (...) These measures move us away from the objective. A massive measure like this can only accentuate the crisis.

— María Antonieta Alva, 29 March 2020

[13]

On 25 June, congressmen from Unión por el Perú and Frente Amplio reached the required accessions to present an appeal to Minister Alva to present the results of the economic and reactivation measures implemented by the government.[14]

References

1. "A Peruvian Bureaucrat's Coronavirus Fight Makes Her a Hero". Ryan Dube. The Wall Street Journal. 4 May 2020. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
2. "Doctor Jorge Elias Alva Hurtado - Rector".
3. "María Antonieta Alva - Líderes Responsables - Universidad del Pacífico".
4. https://www.esan.edu.pe/publicaciones/2012/03/21/articulo6.pdf
5. "Relación de colegiados ordenados por apellido".
6. "Maria Antonieta Alva, Peru's Harvard-trained Covid-19 'hero' with an India connect". Fiza Jha. ThePrint. 5 May 2020. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
7. "María Antonieta Alva Luperdi - Ministra de Economía y Finanzas".
8. "Confirmado: Maria Antonieta Alva será la nueva ministra de Economía". 3 October 2019.
9. "Docente de posgrado de la FCA es designada ministra del Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas".
10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNHC_ATY3sI
11. "Peru's 35-year-old finance minister is suddenly a rock star". The Economic Times. 6 May 2020. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
12. "MEF presentará mañana proyecto para que población vulnerable retire fondos de AFP". 30 March 2020.
13. "MEF presentará propuesta para liberar parte de los fondos de AFP, pero no sería para todos". 30 March 2020.
14. "Presentan moción para interpelar a la ministra María Antonieta Alva". 25 June 2020.