| COLOMBIA,
A POSITIVE COUNTRY Prepared by:
Affairs Coordinator
Internal and External Communications
Ministry of Foreign Relations
ON THE FRONT PAGE
• RECOGNITION OF EXCELLENCE: Ecopetrol rewarded the 35
young Colombians who obtained the highest scores in ICFES tests
in 2003. The oil company will pay for their professional career
studies at the university of their choice, plus an allowance
for transport and textbooks. The honor was awarded to students
who achieved the highest score in State tests in each of the
32 departments of the country, the Bogotá capital district,
and at Native Colombian and African Colombian communities.
• QUALITY
CERTIFICATE TO CRAFTSWOMEN OF LA GUAJIRA: 53
craftswomen of La Guajira were awarded the Icontec Quality Certificate,
Hecho a Mano (Handmade), which fosters and supports marketing
of such products, not only in the country but abroad. This recognition
is the result of support offered by SENA for training and coaching
to optimize the manufacture processes of these crafts and marketing
thereof. The training was designed by the educational institution
through a joint collaboration with Artesanías de Colombia.
SENA has envisaged the continuation of this training project
with La Guajira craftsmen to consolidate a larger group having
this quality certificate.
SOCIAL INVESTMENT
• RESOURCES
FOR MUSICAL TRAINING: The National Government
and Fonade awarded funds for nearly $231 million to grant music
training to several bands and choirs of the Coffee-Growing, Orinoquía,
and Amazonía Regions. The purpose of this project is to
hold training seminars and consultancy visits on this field for
musicians who are teachers or for choir directors, so they will
in turn share their knowledge with the community. In the area
of wind bands, the Tolima Conservatoire was the proponent selected
for the Orinoquía and Amazonía region, whereas
the Cali Fine Arts Institute and the Autónoma University
of Bucaramanga were chosen for the Coffee-Growing Region.
• COLOMBIA,
A COUNTRY OF LANDOWNERS: a total $165 billion
have been granted for social housing loans and microcredits in
the first seven months of 2004, as part of the agreements entered
into by the National Government and the banks and solidarity
sector. At the close of 31 July 2004, these results accounted
for 60% of the target set by the Executive Branch for this year,
as it hopes to earmark resources for $274 billion under the framework
of such agreements. In December 2003, a “meeting of minds” agreement
was signed with the financial sector, whereby the latter commits
to allocate social housing resources for a minimum 0.5% per annum
of its gross portfolio as of 31 October 2003, in the next two
years.
• RADIO STATIONS
FOR NATIVE COLOMBIAN COMMUNITIES: 68
thousand Native Colombians from various ethnic groups in the
country now have a communication and expression channel for their
culture, thanks to the sixteen public interest radio stations
operating in the same number of regions in the country, owing
to the “Community” program of the Ministry of Communications.
This coverage of Native Colombians represents nearly 60% of this
population in Colombia. Eight of these radio stations have been
set up in the current Administration. For this year, the program’s
second phase will contract the installation of two radio stations
for Native Colombian communities of La Guajira and two in Antioquia,
SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND GENERATION OF EMPLOYMENT
• FINAGRO
INCREASES LOANS: so far this year, Fondo para
el Financiamiento del Sector Agropecuario (Finagro) (Fund for
Financing of the Agriculture and Cattle-Related Sector) has allocated
loans for $1 trillion 18 billion pesos, representing a 36.4%
increment against the first seven months of 2003, when $746.3
billion were placed. In compliance with the Government’s
social policy for reactivation of rural activities, the new loans
granted to small-scale, individual, and association producers
amounted to $200.6 billion, or a 76.7% increase against the amount
executed in the same period in 2003.
• ASSOCIATION
FOR OIL EXPLOITATION: three large oil companies,
the most important one in Colombia, the most important one in
deepwater exploration and the number one private company in the
world, joined forces to explore an area of 4.4 million hectares
in the Colombian Caribbean Coast, which extends from La Guajira
to Bolívar and turns out to be as large as the whole of
the Department of Casanare. ExxonMobil, Petrobras, and Ecopetrol
entered into the largest exploitation contract in the country.
The contract was formalized in a memorandum of understanding
between Ecopetrol, Petrobras, and ExxonMobil.
• EXPORTS
ON THE RISE: total Colombian
exports increased in the past month of June by 36.2% against
the same month in
2003, as they went from US$1.02 billion to US$1.4 billion. As
per Dane, the remarkable growth in total exports in June, which
had not been experienced for many years, was achieved as a result
of the higher exports of traditional products. In fact, while
coffee, oil, coal, and ferronickel exports increased by 37.7%,
those of non-traditional products (plastic material, garments,
textiles, foods, beverages, and tobacco, vehicles and their spares)
went up by 34.9%.
• UNEMPLOYMENT
RATES GO DOWN: the national unemployment
rate went down in July 2004 to 12.9% against 14.3% in July 2003.
This decrease of over one point in the unemployment rate reveals
the creation of more than 615 thousand new jobs in the same period.
Dane pointed out that in July 2004, the country’s total
population amounted to 43.8 million people, out of which 20.4
million were classified as economically active. In July 2004,
17,785,820 citizens had jobs, whereas in July 2003, the figure
was 17,169,826 people.
DEMOCRATIC SECURITY
• GUAJIROS
RETURN HOME: thanks to the support of Red de
Solidaridad Social (Social Solidarity Network), 520 Indians from
the Wayúu community, which is a total of 99 families,
returned to their original reservation located in upper Guajira,
after undergoing displacement conditions. These people had been
displaced from their homes since the past 27th of April as a
result of the murder of three members of their community. In
the last four months, the families lived in inner city sections
of Uribia and Maicao in La Guajira. As far as security is concerned,
the territory where these families are now located is guarded
by two military bases set up for that purpose, after a security
checkup was conducted by the authorities.
• FIGHT AGAINST
NARCOTERRORISM: a provision for over US$250
million will be disbursed by the North-American Government to
Colombia so as to help reinforce the fight against drug dealing
and terrorism. The US Ambassador in Colombia, William B. Wood,
and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolina Barco, signed an
attachment to the General Agreement for Economic, Technical,
and Related Aid between the Government of Colombia and the Government
of the United States (known as "1962 Agreement"), intended
to serve as master agreement for cooperation and support relations
in force, from the United States, both for Plan Colombia and
Iniciativa Regional Andina Antinarcóticos (Antidrug Andean
Regional Initiative).
STATE EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY
• ARCHAEOLOGICAL
TREASURE RECOVERED: Departamento Administrativo
de Seguridad (DAS - Administrative Security Department) recovered
two thousand archaeological pieces, which, according to investigations,
had been illegally taken from buried treasures, located in the
center and south of the country. The pieces recovered date back
to the year 200 A.C. and belong to the Muisca, Quimbaya, Quillacinga,
Nariño, Tumaco, and San Agustín cultures. The archaeological
material was in the hands of the alleged owner of the “Clavija” Precolumbian
Indigenous Art gallery. Once the pieces are evaluated by Instituto
Colombiano de Antropología (Colombian Anthropology Institute),
they will be sent to the Gold Museum.
• 2005 CENSUS
MEETS STANDARDS: an IDB mission confirmed
that the preparation of the XVIIth Population and VIth Housing
National Census, to be held on 22 May 2005, meets international
standards. In turn, Departamento Nacional de Estadísticas
(DANE - National Statistics Department) confirmed that IDB endorsed
the work being performed for the census, the progress made, and
the support components. In the document provided at the end of
the 5-day visit, IDB pointed out that it has been able to confirm
the commitment and technical capability of DANE personnel to
carry out the 2005 population census, as well as the censual
design quality that has met recognized international standards.
(FIN/PCO/CIE)
3 September 2004
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