| COLOMBIA,
A POSITIVE COUNTRY
Prepared by:
Affairs Coordinator
Internal and External Communications
Ministry of Foreign Relations
ON THE FRONT PAGE
• ENVIRONMENTAL AMBASSADORS: Colombians
David Orjuela and Sandra Carolina Agudelo won the Bayer Encuentro
Juvenil Ambiental
en Colombia (Bayer Environmental Youth Encounter in Colombia)
prize, which that multinational presented three months ago. The
gathering sought proposals for sustainable development from university
students between the ages of 18 and 25. From November 27 to December
3, David and Sandra will be in Leverkusen, Germany, with the
winners from 10 other countries.
• IMAGE OF COLOMBIA HELD HIGH: Fortalezas de Colombia
(Strengths of Colombia), is the new book by the InterAmerican
Development Bank (IDB) that portrays the “assets” of
Colombia, referring to the solidity of its democracy and the
strength of civic society, contrasting it to the image of a country
in conflict. The publication is a compilation of twenty some
articles from a group of authors, gathered together by the university
professor, former minister, and former Colombian Ambassador,
Fernando Cepeda. The book was published by Editorial Planeta
in its Ariel Ciencia Política (Ariel Science and Politics)
collection and was launched in Paris, France.
SOCIAL INVESTMENT
• INTERNATIONAL AID: The European
Commission has financed support projects, for the last three
years, in Colombia for the
displaced population in the amount of more than $43 billion.
Currently, of that figure, six projects are being executed at
a cost of $27 billion. The Commission is holding a bid process
open until January 11th, with a budget of $28 billion, in which
projects that benefit the displaced population, presented by
national and international NGOs, local and regional authorities,
and public institutions can participate.
• MORE COLOMBIANS WITH SUBSIDIZED
HEALTH: by the end of 2004, the country will have close to
15 million Colombians who
have received benefits from subsidized health. This year, adding
together total and partial subsidies, close to three million
people have benefited. To provide these benefits, the health
system will invest annually, for total subsidies, resources in
the amount of $309 billion, while for partial aid it will invest
an additional $125 billion, co-financed by the government and
the local administrations. This figure represents an increase
of 42% compared to the figure at the end of 2002.
SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND GENERATION OF EMPLOYMENT
• SUPPORT TO MICRO BUSINESSES: the national government has paid out, during the first two
years of the administration,
a total of $2,818,686,000 pesos in credits to Colombian micro
businesses. As of July 31, and updated as of September 4, 2004,
the resources have been disbursed through credit lines at Bancoldex,
the agreement signed between the Ministry of Commerce and the
banks, Finagro, and foundations. Between August and December
of 2002, $376,327 million pesos were disbursed. In 2003 the figure
was $1.29 trillion. During the first 7 months of this current
year $1.14 trillion pesos were given in loans. These micro credit
resources have benefited a total of 1.31 million Colombians.
• INFLATION DOWN IN OCTOBER: inflation went down by 0.01%
in October, with respect to the same month last year. The Consumer
Price Index Report (IPC for its initials in Spanish) for this
month indicates that the variation of –0.01% is 0.07 points
lower with respect to the same period in 2003, when it was 0.06%.
This variation is the second lowest since 1977, when it was -0,24%,
and the lowest in the last ten years. Similarly, inflation for
the year to date, as of October, is 4.8%, or 0.59% less with
respect to the figure for January to October of 2003, when it
was 5.48%. Meanwhile, in the last 12 months inflation reached
5.90%, or –0.68 percentage points compared to the figure
from a year before, when it was 6.5%.
• OPTIMUM BEHAVIOR OF FOREIGN
COMMERCE: Colombian exports grew by 37.4% in August, relative to the
same month of 2003,
going from US$1,087 million to US$1,494 million. This good performance
in the first eight months is due to the increase of 22.9% in
the export of non-traditional products such as vehicles, raw
materials, clothing, and sugar and candies, among others. On
their part, traditional exports (coffee, oil, coal, ferronickel)
increased by 16.6%.
• LOW RATE OF UNEMPLOYMENT ON
THE NATIONAL LEVEL: in the third quarter of this year the unemployment
rate on the national
level went down from 14.3% to 12.8%. During July, August, and
September, 323 thousand people less were unemployed, after a
decrease in the number of people unemployed was from 2.9 to 2.6
million people. As far as the rate of underemployment, it decreased
from 33.4% to 31.5%, which means that there are 500 thousand
people less who are underemployed. In the thirteen main cities
of Colombia and their metropolitan areas, unemployment fell from
17 to 15%. This means that between July and September of this
year, 1,415,000 people did not have work, while in the same time
period in 2003, when the rate was at 17%, there were 1,615,000
people without work.
DEMOCRATIC SECURITY
• ACCIDENT RATE DOWN: in the first
eight months of 2004, in comparison with the same period in
2002, the number of traffic
accidents went down by 21%. While from January to August 2002
there were 4,052 accidents, in the same lapse in 2004, that figure
decreased to 3,220. Comparing the first eight months of 2004
to the first eight months of 2003, the decrease is 15.8%, going
from 3,826 to 3,220 accidents.
• RECORD FIGURE FOR DEMOBILIZED
COMBATANTS: the Program for Humanitarian Attention to Demobilized
Combatants (PAHD for
the initials in Spanish), revealed that during October 2004,
365 members of the illegal armed groups laid down their weapons.
The self defense illegal armed groups were the source of the
greatest number of demobilizations during this month, with 273.
This was the month with the greatest number of demobilizations
in the course of the current administration.
• STRENGTHENING THE FIGHT AGAINST
MONEY LAUNDERING: in order to intensify the struggle against
money laundering and
to avoid the strengthening of the terrorist and criminal organizations,
the government reinforced the official commission in charge of
this labor. By means of Decree 3420 the Ministry of the Interior
and Justice and the President modified the composition of the
Inter-Institutional Coordination Committee for the Control of
Money Laundering (CCICLA for its initials in Spanish) created
in 1995, and created four operative committees of a strictly
technical character: the Committee for Anti-money Laundering
Culture, the Committee for Prevention and Detection, the Research
and Judging Committee, and the Committee for the Implementation
of the Centralized System for Information Consultations.
STATE EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY
• REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR HOMEOPATHIC
MEDICINE: by means
of Decree 3554 of 2004, the national government established a
complete set of regulations for homeopathic medicine. The laws
have to do with health department registration, manufacturing,
production, bottling, packing, quality control, importations,
exportations, marketing, use, distribution, good manufacturing
practices, surveillance, and health department control of homeopathic
medicines for human use. The law establishes that the laboratories
that manufacture homeopathic medicines must present a plan to
INVIMA for gradual compliance with the implementation of “good
manufacturing practices”.
• GOAL SURPASSED FOR TAX COLLECTION: tax collections increased by 17.4% during the first ten months
of 2004 relative to the
same period in 2003. The tax monies collected reached $29.4 trillion,
while from January to September of 2003, $25.1 trillion pesos
were collected. The amount of taxes for this year to date is
greater than the goal set by the government. In effect, the goal
was to collect $28.4 trillion and $29.4 trillion pesos have been
collected, that is to say one billion pesos more (an additional
3.6%). In what is called internal taxes, collection increased
by 24.2% compared to the first 10 months of 2003.
• FISCAL DEFICIT AT ZERO: at the
close of the first semester of this year, the consolidated
fiscal debt in the public sector
reached zero percent. Thus, the goal for debt in the six first
months of 2004 was greatly surpassed, by more than $700 billion.
On its part, the national government indicated that it will meet
the goal for a deficit of 2.5% for the entire year 2004.
(FIN/PCO/CIE)
November 5, 2004
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