Colombia,
A Positive Country
Prepared by:
Affairs Coordinator
Internal and External Communications
Ministry of Foreign Relations
ON THE FRONT PAGE
• SANTIAGO BOTERO CHAMPION OF
THE TOUR DE ROMANDIE: during
the fifth and last stage of the Tour de Romandie the cyclist
from the Phonak team recorded a time of 26 minutes and 29 seconds
in 20.4 kilometers, to win the laurels of that cycling tour in
Switzerland. Among Botero’s great ambitions for 2006 are
winning the Tour de France, and planning the Vuelta a España
and the World Cup. To fulfill his objectives, the cyclist trains
daily with more kilometers covered.
• COLOMBIAN DOCTOR WON PRIZE: For his novel treatment
for Lupus, Renato Guzman, Lupus doctor from the National University,
received the prize for the best clinical research for his study
titled “Rituximab in Refractory Lupus”, during the
Sixth European Congress on Lupus held in London recently. The
meeting of world experts on the topic involved seven patients
with advanced Lupus, whose vital organs were compromised. Guzman
carried out treatments with Rituximab, a drug developed for leukemia,
which blocks the actions of B lymphocytes, which cause the symptoms
of Lupus, an auto-immune system disorder in which the organism
attacks itself instead of defending itself.
SOCIAL INVESTMENT
• EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION: the national government plans
to increase coverage this year for basic education by means of
contracting with third parties, in which resources in the amount
of $150 billion will be invested. President Álvaro Uribe,
stated that the initiative constitutes one of the tools for meeting
the goal for the four-year term to create one million five hundred
thousand new educational spots across the country, as proposed
in the Educational Revolution policy. The resources will allow
the most needy population of the country to have the needed educational
infrastructure to be able to go to school. As of 2004 the administration
had created 734,413 spots in schools.
• FOOD SECURITY FOR COUNTRY DWELLERS: 1,092,000 rural inhabitants
are currently benefited by the Food Security Network program
(Resa), whose purpose is prevent displacement and to facilitate
the return of people who have been forced to leave their places
of origin, through promoting projects to produce food for self-consumption.
According to the last report from the Social Security Network,
as of the first quarter of 2005, the program has 86 co-financing
agreements for coverage in 29 Departments.
SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND GENERATION OF EMPLOYMENT
• WINNING COMPANIES: the winners
of the Second Annual Competition for Business Plans and Establishing
Companies, organized
each year by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism
are Arte Tierradentro, a company in charge of designing, preparing,
and developing contemporary products in natural products such
as Totumo and Guadua, and Ecofakto Ltda., from the manufacturing
and input sector, which offers designs for industrial and semi-industrial
ecological products, especially in natural materials other than
wood.
• 340,000 PEOPLE VISITED THE
BOOK FAIR IN BOGOTÁ: the Eighteenth international Book Fair, held each year in Corferias,
received 190,000 students from schools in the District, from
Cundinamarca, and the rest of the country. Juliana Calad, Director
of the Colombian Chamber of Books said she was very grateful
to the visitors for the huge response to the event. Chile will
be the guest of honor for the 19th International Bogotá Book
Fair in 2006.
• ROBOT FROM POPAYAN WON CONTEST IN THE UNITED STATES: the Scorpio
defeated another 19 projects in the test organized by California
Polytechnic State University. Sebastian Cabrera, Cesar Quinayás
and Ronald Pantoja, built the equipment capable of navigating
a labyrinth and recovering five golf balls in the laboratories
of the University of Cauca and TMC-ITEL Ltda. The 15-centimeter
robot gathers soda cans and round objects detected by three sensors
that combine laser and infrared rays, located in the front of
the robot. Other sensors follow a route marked out, and a cane
determines the location of obstacles. The Scorpio cost $800,000.
STATE EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY
•TEACHERS CHOOSE EPS: starting the first week of May all teachers
registered with the government as official teachers may select
the private or public entity in charge of providing health services
for them and their families. The teachers can make this selection
using the web page www.fiduprevisorasalud.com, where all the
relevant information and the form will be included.
DEMOCRATIC SECURITY
• THEFT OF FUEL AT ITS LOWEST
LEVEL: actions taken by Colombian authorities against gasoline theft
have led during
the first quarter of 2005 to the lowest levels for this crime
in the last six years, according to a report from Ecopetrol.
Its maximum level was in 2002, which was 7,270 barrels daily,
and theft has fallen to 1,766 barrels per day between January
and March of this year. The losses decreased from US $106 million
in 2002 to US $80 million in 2003, US $59 million in 2004, and
to US $11.5 million in the first three months of 2005.
(FIN/JHINA/CIE)
May 6, 2005
