Colombia, A Positive Country
Prepared by:
Affairs Coordinator
Internal and External Communications
Ministry of Foreign Relations
ON THE FRONT PAGE
• “EXPERIENCE COLOMBIA, TRAVEL IT”: the third phase of this campaign offers more than 70 tourism
packages in
25 Departments, with discounts between 20% and 30%. In addition
to the traditional caravans and secure routes that are activated
during vacation seasons, agencies will provide plans, as of March
2, that include hotels and restaurants, as well as land and air
transportation, with the goal of stimulating foreign tourism
in the country.
• WORLD BANK HIGHLIGHTS ADVANCES
AND PROGRESS IN THE COLOMBIAN ECONOMY: the Vice President of the World Bank for Latin America
and the Caribbean, Pamela Cox, who met in Bogotá with
President Álvaro Uribe, highlighted the advances and progress
made by the Colombian economy during the current government,
and held up the achievements of the Democratic Security Policy.
Cox insisted on the need to persist in the policies that are
producing results, such as the fiscal adjustments and the reduction
of the debt relative to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
•
INNS IN COLOMBIA FOR WORLD TOURISM: the Ministry of Commerce,
Industry, and Tourism signed a cooperation agreement with the
tour operators Bonhotel-Grupo Over and Savia-Amadeus, who will
market worldwide this novel alternative for lodging that seeks
to foment tourism and generate income possibilities for low-income
families. In 2005 there will be more than 400 additional inns
with prices from $195,000 up to $395,000, for three days and
two nights. The destinations offered are: Nuquí and
Bahía Solano in Chocó, Taganga in Magdalena,
Cabo de la Vela in La Guajira, and the San Andrés and
Providence Islands. http://www.posadasturisticas.com.co/
SOCIAL INVESTMENT
• GOVERNMENT DELIVERED HOUSING
TO 200,515 POOR FAMILIES: the total amount of subsidies and
credits awarded last year will
be complemented in 2005 with 100 thousand newly built residential
units, and in 2006, another 100 thousand units, to reach the
goal of 400 thousand new low-income housing units during the
four-year presidential term. The households benefited from the
subsidies granted through Fonvivienda, the family compensation
funds, the Banco Agrario (Agrarian Bank) and Caja Promotora de
Vivienda Militar (Military Housing Promotion Fund), as well as
from the micro credits for low-income housing given out through
the National Savings Fund and the Territorial Development Financial
Fund (Findeter).
• $575,200 MILLION IN FUNDS FOR ATTENTION TO DISPLACED PERSONS: the resources assigned in 2004 and 2005 by the national government
reached $575,200 million, a figure greater by $100 billion than
that assigned between 2000 and 2003. The High Presidential Council
for Social Action announced that the new National Plan for Integral
Attention to the Displaced Population has now gone into effect.
The phases established for its development include prevention,
protection, emergency humanitarian attention, and socioeconomic
stabilizing. The Plan will be executed with national resources.
SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND GENERATION OF EMPLOYMENT
• IN 2004 INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION
GREW BY 4.87%: the DANE
(the National Administrative Department of Statistics) indicated
that the manufacturing industry’s production was the highest
in the last three years when it reached 4.57% in 2004. In 2003,
industrial production had increased by 3.43% and in 2002 by 0.66%.
The DANE reported that last year production increased in 34 of
the 48 industrial classifications analyzed in the Monthly Manufacturing
Survey. Those that most contributed to the growth were ‘vehicles
and parts’, whose production grew by 40.64%, ‘manufacture
of other transportation equipment’ by 37.46% and ‘basic
iron and steel industries’ by 12.27%.
• UNEMPLOYMENT DECREASED IN JANUARY: the DANE reported
that the unemployment rate is currently 13.2% in Colombia. This
figure is lower than that recorded in the same month last year,
when it was 17%. Last January’s rate for the 13 largest
cities was 16.1%. That same rate for those cities in January
2004 for unemployment was 18.1%. According to the DANE, the number
of employed people between January 2004 and January 2005 went
from 3,496,000 to 2,661,000.
• HEALTH WILL RECEIVE 34% INCREASE
IN RESOURCES IN 2005: this year three new games of chance and luck will begin to operate
in Colombia: the Minilotto, the Instantánea (Instantaneous),
and betting on soccer, thanks to which ETESA (Empresa Territorial
para la Salud or Territorial Enterprise for Health) aspires to
increase transfers to the health sector by 34%, that is to say,
$153 billion. ETESA estimates that the sector will receive around
$80 billion over 5 years from soccer bets. The game operator
is Intralot, a Greek firm that is currently investing $25 billion
Colombian pesos in installing the betting apparatus.
DEMOCRATIC SECURITY
• 423 PEOPLE HAVE LEFT ILLEGAL
GROUPS IN 2005: during this administration 11,489 people have
laid down their weapons.
The Program for Humanitarian Attention to Demobilized Combatants
(PAHD) revealed that in February, 254 members of illegal armed
groups demobilized individually. Decree 128 of 2002 by the national
government established health support for demobilized combatants
and their families, as well as judicial protection and solutions
through the Ministry of the Interior, economic support for the
creation of micro-businesses, and the possibility of getting
a high school diploma and training from the SENA.
• FAMILIES IN BOJAYÁ WILL HAVE A NEW PLACE TO LIVE: the reconstruction of the town will be a reality by the end of
2005. The first 20 residences will be offered to the families,
as well as a school, a high school, a sport stadium, and a project
to install a power plant to guarantee electrical service in the
new Bojayá, at a viable cost. The economic support of
40 minimum salaries ($14 million) will cover each one of the
families that suffered from the terrorist attack three years
ago, and a series of health campaigns will also be held throughout
2005.
(FIN/JHINA/CIE)
March 4, 2005
