COLOMBIA, A POSITIVE COUNTRY
Prepared by:
Affairs Coordinator
Internal and External Communications
Ministry of Foreign Relations
ON THE FRONT PAGE
• MILLIONS IN CONTRIBUTIONS FOR
COLOMBIAN FILM MAKING: in 2004 the Colombian film making industry
received an additional
$7,300 million pesos for its development and strengthening, from
contributions to the Cinematography Fund. The resources were
invested in mechanisms for conserving film patrimony, for promoting
films, for producing new short and full-length films, and for
educating the public, among other activities, to create dynamism
in the film making industry. The Cinematography Fund has been
funded by contributions generated by the Film Law, a special
tax that producers, distributors, and exhibitors must pay in
benefit of Cinemagraphic Development, with a view to meeting
the most urgent needs in this sector.
SOCIAL INVESTMENT
• GOVERNMENT DISTRIBUTES RESOURCES
FOR EDUCATION: the national government distributed resources
in the amount of $841,944
million for education to Colombian Departments and Municipalities.
This amount is part of the resources set aside by the President
for the sector as part of the General System of Participation
(SGP for the initials in Spanish) for the year 2004. According
to the calendar for disbursements under Law 715 of 2001, the
SGP resources are delivered at the end of the month, and therefore
the twelfth payment, corresponding to December 2004, was distributed
this month. The resources are to be used to meet the goals of
expanded coverage, greater relevance, and improved educational
quality, among others.
• INVESTMENT IN INFRASTRUCTURE:
resources in the amount of $208 billion were allocated for
the Roads for Peace Program
under Plan Colombia for 2004. The money was invested in the construction,
improvement, and maintenance of the road infrastructure in 19
Departments, located in zones that are depressed and affected
by the high level of violence. With this investment, 115 bridges,
57 highways, 14 airport runways, and 31 river port projects were
built across the country. The program budget during 2004 was
$133 billion, of which 100% was committed to projects and 70%
executed. In 2005, the program will continue working on Colombian
infrastructure with the goal of facilitating communication, using
roadways, with the most isolated regions.
SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND GENERATION OF EMPLOYMENT
• DISBURSEMENT FROM OIL ROYALTIES:
Through the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH for the initials
in Spanish) the national
government transferred $175,508 million to 18 Departments in
the country from oil royalties, corresponding to November 2004.
The Departments that received the most resources were: Casanare
($45,595.3 million), Meta ($21,433.5 million), Huila ($16,632.7
million), Arauca ($15,863.9 million) and Santander ($8,539 million).
According to Law 756 of 2002, these funds should be invested
in priority projects in health, education, and basic water and
sewage systems, keeping in mind the Development Plan for each
one of the territorial institutions benefited. Further information
on these transfers and the amount assigned to each beneficiary
can be seen on the Web page: www.anh.gov.co.
• NEW ROAD CONCESSIONS: during the first semester of 2005
six concessions were granted for road infrastructure for an amount
close to five trillion pesos. The concessions to be put into
motion are high impact works, including: the two-lane highway
from Atlántico to Bolívar, the alternative road
to Pasto and the road to Ipiales, the road for the second bridge
in Montería and the two-lane highway to Cereté.
• SALES ABROAD ROSE: in the first
ten months of 2004 sales abroad from Colombia grew by 23.2%
with respect to the same period
in 2003, with exports going from US$10,867.8 million during the
period between January and October 2003 to US$13,389.5 million
during the same period in 2004. Particularly, non-traditional
exports grew by 23.9% in the period analyzed, from greater sales
of autos and auto parts, plastic goods, clothing, food, beverages
and tobacco. Meanwhile, traditional exports grew by 22.5%, mainly
as a consequence of the sale of oil and its derivatives, which
benefited from good international prices.
• EQUAL CONDITIONS: no company or institution, public
or private, may require that candidates for a position or a job
must be within a given age range in order to be hired. Thus establishes
Law 931 of 2004, approved by President Álvaro Uribe Velez
and which legislates that job requirements must refer to merits
related to experience, profession, and occupation. The objective
of the law is to protect the rights of citizens to equal treatment,
and to not discriminate based on age. This means that any rules
about age restrictions must be modified as of the date the Law
goes into effect: December 30, 2004. Any new rules must eliminate
both age limits and any other limit that does not guarantee equal
conditions for access to work.
• THE SENA, A SOURCE FOR EMPLOYMENT:
thanks to the free services available as part of the Public
Employment Service at
SENA, 70,425 Colombians found jobs in 2004, among the 142,098
vacancies offered by more than 19,370 Colombian businessmen in
different companies across the country. From January 1 until
November 30 of 2004 more than 350 thousand people resorted to
that service. Of those signed up, 64,315 Colombians were remitted
to training given by the SENA in order to increase their chances
of finding a job. Colombians interested in learning about vacancies
and businessmen who wish to offer job opportunities can sign
up for this service at the Web Page: http://colombianostrabajando.sena.edu.co.
You can also sign up at one of the 75 service centers made available
by the SENA across the country, or on the free national line
for service to the public: 01-8000-910270.
• GOAL FOR INCREASES MET: prices
in 2004 for Colombian products and services had the smallest
increase since 1995, with
a recorded price variation of 5.5% with respect to 2003. This
result met the goal proposed by the Bank of the Republic, which
fixed inflation for 2004 in the range of 5 to 6%. According to
the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane for
the initials in Spanish), in December 2004 the CPI was at 0.30%,
a variation that was .31 percentage points lower than the 0.61%
recorded for December 2003. The behavior of the index in December
contributed to a cumulative for 2004 (5.5%) that was 0.99% less
than inflation in 2003, which was 6.49%.
DEMOCRATIC SECURITY
• REINTEGRATION INTO CIVILIAN LIFE: a total of 9,906 members
of the illegal armed groups have abandoned the ranks of the subversion
during the administration of President Álvaro Uribe. In
2004, 5,596 members of those groups handed themselves in, of
which 2,972 did so individually. The FARC was the group that
lost the greatest number of combatants from individual desertions,
with 1,300 cases recorded, followed by the AUC with 1,269, the
ELN with 333, and dissident groups with 70. The Departments that
recorded the greatest numbers of combatants who turned themselves
in were: Casanare (447 cases), Antioquia (411), Cundinamarca
(166), Meta (187), Boyacá (181), Caquetá (148),
Santander (142), Tolima (127), Magdalena (109) and Guaviare (101).
STATE EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY
• LIQUIDATION PROCESSES AHEAD OF
SCHEDULE: six months ahead of schedule, the national government
completed the processes
for the suppression and liquidation of the Co-financing Fund
for Rural Investment (DRI) and the National Fishing Institute
(Inpa). The deadline initially established for completing this
task was June 2005. The DRI had 144 officials, an expense that,
added to rent for the installations, cost the state $4,044 million
pesos per year. At Inpa the jobs of 374 employees were suppressed,
which means a savings of $2,830 million annually. To date, liquidation
is still pending for the National Institute for Land Improvement
and the Colombian Institute for Agrarian Reform.
(FIN/PCO/CIE)
January 7, 2005
