Colombia, a Positive Country
Prepared by:
Affairs Coordinator
Internal and External Communications
Ministry of Foreign Relations
ON THE FRONT PAGE
• ROSARIO TIJERAS TRIUMPHS IN
SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL: the
movie Rosario Tijeras, based on the novel by the writer from
Antioquia, Jorge Franco, was nominated for best Spanish-language
foreign film in the Goya Awards, considered the most important
awards for Spanish cinema. The film portrays Medellín
in the era of the drug cartels, set against a background of violence
that shook the city in the decade of the eighties. The film was
produced through an international cooperation between Colombia,
Mexico, Spain, Brazil, and France.
• ABAD FACIOLINCE’S NOVEL
AWARDED IN CHINA: Angosta (Narrow), the novel that narrates
the story of an imaginary city
where the people live in a divided environment, was honored in
China as Best Foreign Novel for the year 2004, in Spanish. The
work was translated into Chinese by the specialist Hu Zhen Cai
and edited by Seix Barral. As part of the prize, the Publishing
House for Popular Chinese Literature invited the Colombian writer
to personally receive the prize and to visit that country. Abad
Faciolince studied foreign literature in Turin, Italy, and is
currently writing the novel El olvido que seremos (The Forgetfulness
We Will Be).
SOCIAL INVESTMENT
• CONPES AUTHORIZES INVITATION
FOR 22 THOUSAND HOUSING SUBSIDIES: the National Council for
Economic and Social Policy
(Conpes), authorized a new invitation during the first semester
of 2006 to apply for low-income housing subsidies, in the amount
of $112,838 million pesos. The government will use these resources
in benefit of households in vulnerable populations by means of
assigning 22 thousand subsidies that will give them access to
home ownership. According to a balance statement approved by
the Conpes, 71% of the goal proposed in the National Development
Plan for low-income housing has been met.
• 33 THOUSAND COMMUNITY MOTHERS
TRAINED IN COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS: the Colombian Family Welfare
Institute, ICBF, and
the SENA have trained 33,074 community mothers across the country
in cooperative economics and the cooperative movement between
August 2002 and September 2005. This training program helps women
and their families gain access to additional income through the
organization and administration of small businesses in diverse
sectors, in addition to learning basic principles about cooperatives.
These mothers are in charge of taking care of boys and girls
in the ICBF community homes.
• GODFATHER PLAN AND THE JAPANESE
EMBASSY TO BUILD SCHOOLS: An initiative was approved by the Godfather Plan at the Presidential
Council for Special Programs for the Office of the President
of the Republic and the Japanese Embassy to build six new educational
institutions in the Departments of Sucre, Magdalena, Huila, Nariño,
and Cesar. The new schools will benefit 4,353 elementary and
middle school students and 4,567 indigenous students. The works
include the construction of bathrooms and circulation zones,
and will be undertaken with resources donated by the Japanese
Embassy.
SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND GENERATION OF EMPLOYMENT
• RESOURCES FOR THE CREATION
OF NEW COMPANIES: the Emprender
Fund at the SENA announced an invitation to finance productive
projects in the Departments of Tolima and Risaralda, and the
municipalities of Cajicá, Cundinamarca, Génova,
Quindío, and La Ceja, Antioquia. The resources, in a total
amount of over $1,257 million, will be handed over by means of
adhesion contracts that will oscillate between 5 and 80 million
pesos. The projects must be for business plans related to the
productive sector of each region and must be presented by the
interested parties to the Entrepreneurial Units at each one of
the regional SENA offices committed to this type of financing.
• $29,616 MILLION FOR TOURISM: between August 2003 and
November of this year, the Territorial Development Financier
has loaned almost 30 billion pesos to the tourism sector, through
a special line of credit designed by the institution to promote
the development of that sector. The regions that have received
the most resources from this line of credit are Bogotá ($6,965
million) and Valle ($4,956 million).
• LOANS FOR AGRICULTURE: between January and November,
producers and entrepreneurs in the agricultural and livestock
sector have received a total of $1.93 trillion pesos in new loans
from the government, as a support to farming labors. The Minister
of Agriculture, Andrés Felipe Arias, explained that this
figure represents an increase of 12% with respect to the same
period in 2004, when loans were granted in the amount of $1.72
trillion.
DEMOCRATIC SECURITY
• GOAL MET FOR MANUAL ERADICATION
OF COCA AND HEROIN POPPY: Colombia surpassed the goal for manual
eradication of illicit
crops that it proposed for 2005, and beat the world record by
destroying more than 30 thousand hectares of coca and heroin
poppy during the year. A total of 1,971 people, distributed in
65 groups, worked over large areas of the national territory,
protected by three thousand troops from the public security forces.
The program has been undertaken by the Presidential Agency for
Social Action and International Cooperation.
• TOURIST ‘CARAVANS’ READY FOR YEAR END: in
order to help Colombians to enjoy their year-end vacations with
security, the national government re-launched the 34-route program
called Vive Colombia, viaja por ella (Experience Colombia, Travel
the Country), which will operate from December 17, 2005 to January
22, 2006. The Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism, the
Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Transportation will
support the caravans. Additional support will come from Invías,
the Armed Forces, and the Highway Police. The routes will leave
the main cities in the country and will reach the majority of
the tourism destinations in the country.
STATE EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY
• SOCIAL ACTIONS CERTIFIED BY
ICONTEC: four programs by
the Presidential Program for Social Action – Attention
to Victims of Violence, Registry for Displaced Persons, Donations,
and Acquisition of Goods and Services – received the ISO
9001 quality certificate from the Colombian Institute of Technical
Norms (Icontec). The Director of Social Action, Luis Alfonso
Hoyos, announced that all the agency’s programs would have
the quality certificates in 2006 as a result of the work being
carried out to offer excellent public service.
• TEACHERS RESPOND TO INVITATION: the Colombian Institute for the Promotion of Superior Education,
(ICFES), reported that
134,152 Colombians presented examinations for the second invitation
to the merit-based competition to fill more than 22,000 vacancies
for teachers and teaching directors. The positions are offered
by 67 Offices of the Secretaries of Education in the country.
The examinations were administered last December 11, and those
who passed them must now present documentation to accredit the
degrees and experience related to the position they seek to fill.
The results of the exams will be announced on December 26 at:
www.icfesinteractivo.gov.co
(FIN/PAV/CIE)
December 16, 2005.
