Colombia,
A Positive Country
Prepared by:
Affairs Coordinator
Internal and External Communications
Ministry of Foreign Relations
ON THE FRONT PAGE
•
THE WORLD ON STAGE IN BOGOTÁ: Russia, the father of modern
theatre, is the guest of honor at the Tenth Iberoamerican Theater
Festival in Bogotá, where from March 31 to April 16, 2006,
two thousand artists will gather together from five continents,
45 countries, 52 international companies, and 140 Colombian groups,
in 16 theaters, 6 coliseums, and 20 parks, to give 600 shows
for more than 2,600,000 spectators.
• THE ITALIANS ARE VISITING COLOMBIA: through its missions outside the country the government is
promoting Colombia as a
tourism destination. In December 2005, some 274 Italians will
visit the best Colombian destinations. The idea is for a weekly
charter to transport 274 European travelers from Italy to Colombia
from December 23, 2005 until April 2006. RAI TV has broadcast
the best tourism spots in Colombia on its program Alle falde
dei Kilimngiaro.
SOCIAL INVESTMENT
• GOAL SURPASSED FOR FULL HEALTH
SUBSIDIES: the goal of the government
was to deliver 3 million full health subsidies, and to date it
has delivered 3,162,000. In other words, it has met and surpassed
the goal by 105%. It has also set the goal of delivering partial
subsidies to 2.9 million low-income Colombians, and 1,818,000
people have now been affiliated, which represents 63% of the
goal. Although the increase in coverage during 2004 was notable
across the entire country, the zones with the highest rate of
new affiliations to the health system were the north, northeastern,
and southern regions of the country. For this year the goal is
to assign 2.4 million full and partial subsidies nationwide.
• 8,000 HECTARES FOR DISPLACED
PERSONS: the titles to
four properties totaling 8,352 hectares, located in the municipalities
of Puerto Lopez and Puerto Gaitán, Meta, were handed over
to 297 families of peasants and displaced persons. The lands,
product of an asset forfeiture process, were transferred by the
National Anti-Narcotic Department to the Colombian Institute
of Rural Development (Incoder), the institution in charge of
the land subsidy program for displaced persons. From 2002 to
2005 to-date, the government has handed over a total of 2,136,474
hectares with a value of $36,169 million, in benefit of 42,922
families.
• $13 BILLION FOR SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE: Fonade has awarded $13 billion in 2005 for the technical design
and construction
of school infrastructure projects in 48 municipalities in 19
Departments in the country. The public selection processes carried
out by Fonade have generated savings of more than $1,148 million
for the official budget allocated.
SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND GENERATION OF EMPLOYMENT
• AGRICULTURE HAS GENERATED 780
THOUSAND JOBS: from August 2004 to August 2005, the agricultural
sector contributed the
most to the generation of employment in the Colombian economy.
The rural unemployment indicator fell from a rate close to 10%
to the rate of 5.5%, which represents 780 thousand new jobs generated
during that period. In addition the sector has reported a growth
rate close to 4%.
• EIGHT MULTI-SECTOR MISSIONS
PRESENT IN GERMANY: one
hundred Colombian micro enterprises from the sectors of construction,
apparel manufacturing, and food processing are participating
in a mission from October 7 – 18 to provide several industry
demonstrations in that European country. The delegation is organized
by the Colombo-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Mario
Santo Domingo Foundation, and Fedecaribe.
• 479 TOURIST CARAVANS AND 580
SAFE ROUTES: with the support
of the Democratic Security Policy, Colombians have now, after
the three-day-weekend from October 15 – 17, enjoyed three
years of the Caravan program for tourists, called “Experience
Colombia, Travel the Country”. Among the results are 76,883,000
tolls paid by cars at tollbooths, and more than 195 thousand
kilometers traveled on the national roadway system. The caravans
and safe routes have been established not only on land, but also
in the air and on the water, and even cycling activities have
been tied to major tourism destinations.
• AGRICULTURAL CREDIT GREW BY
10%: in the first nine months of 2005, business owners from the
agricultural sector received
new loans in the amount of $1.5 trillion from the Fund for Financing
the Agricultural Sector (Finagro). During the same period in
2004 they received $1.4 trillion.
STATE EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY
• $114 BILLION FOR MUNICIPALITIES
THAT HAVE BEEN RECOVERED BY THE PUBLIC SECURITY FORCES: these
resources are going to be
invested during 2005 and 2006 in 50 municipalities that have
been recovered by the Public Security Forces, through the Center
for Coordination of Integral Action (CCAI) at the Office of the
President of the Republic. To date the Center has carried out
58 campaigns, which have conducted more than 2 thousand surgeries,
120 thousand medical consultations, and other social services
in benefit of a million and a half inhabitants of the regions
of Tierralta in Cordoba, the Middle and Lower Atrato, the north
of Cauca, Tumaco, the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Catatumbo, Arauca,
Putumayo, and the southern region, including Caqueta, Guaviare,
and Meta.
DEMOCRATIC SECURITY
• INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT GROWS
FOR FAMILY FOREST GUARD PROGRAM: the Autonomous Community of Madrid announced that it
would contribute 500 thousand additional Euros to promote the
second phase of an initiative to strengthen Forest Guard Family
cooperatives in the country. The project, “Formation and
Strengthening of Solidarity Organizations for the Families Benefiting
from the Family Forest Guard Program,” is part of a concept
for local and integral development through four basic areas of
intervention: economic, environmental, institutional, and social.
• DISPLACEMENT HAS FALLEN BY
MORE THAN 50%: forced displacement
of Colombians due to violence has fallen by more than 50% since
the beginning of the current administration. The figures show
that there are fewer displaced persons each year in Colombia. “In
the year 2002 there were 420 thousand displaced persons. In 2003
there were 220 thousand new displaced persons. In 2004 there
were 170 thousand, and this year it is believed that the figure
will be 130 thousand. That is to say: the problem continues to
be serious, but the trend is increasingly toward improvement”.
October 14, 2005.
(FIN/JHINA/CIE)
