Colombia,
A Positive Country
Prepared by:
Affairs Coordinator
Internal and External Communications
Ministry of Foreign Relations
ON THE FRONT PAGE
• POSTERS THAT SPEAK OF COLOMBIA: The Colombian artist,
Marta Granados will participate in the 14th annual Colorado International
Invitational Poster Exhibition (CIIPE), from September 8 to October
14, that gathers the works of 86 artists from 34 countries. She
is the Honor Laureate at the most important poster exhibition
in the United States, where 50 of her large format pieces will
be shown at the Museum of the University of Colorado. Granados
has published three books on Colombia, and she says that she “needs
to tell about and reveal its treasures to the entire world, so
that they will value it more and erase mistaken images, and its
patrimony will be visually expressed.”
•
CATALINA SANDINO IN HER NEW MOVIE: Viaje al final de la noche
(Trip to the End of the Night) is the first production in which
she has participated after her successful role in ‘María,
llena eres de gracia' (Mary Full of Grace). Catalina is in
Brazil filming the movie in which she has the role of Angie,
and she also has another project on her agenda. Twenty-three
year old Sandino Moreno, was born in Bogotá, and became
the first Colombian actress to be a candidate for an Oscar
in the category of Best Actress.
• REAL ESTATE FAIR IN NEW YORK: in the Metropolitan Pavilion,
in Manhattan, from September 17-19, more than 450 projects will
be exhibited, belonging to 85 construction firms, accompanied
by offers of loans from financial institutions and brokers, in
addition to the portfolio of services from three compensation
funds. Four companies that sell products for remodeling will
also participate. In total, 105 companies that sell products
and services to Colombians living in areas near New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
and Washington will have stands at the fair. President Alvaro
Uribe will inaugurate the “Dónde Vivir en Colombia” (Where
to Live in Colombia) Fair, on Saturday at 5 in the afternoon.
SOCIAL INVESTMENT
• MICRO HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANT
TO BE BUILT IN MITÚ:
by means of a convention with IPSE, Gemsa, and the Governor’s
Office of Vaupés, the government was able to finance the
entire project, worth $43,200 million pesos. To this amount,
$18 billion must be added that have already been invested in
the site where the Micro Power Plant is going to be built. $42
billion came from resources from the Support Fund for the Electrification
of Non-interconnected Zones (FAZNI) and the Institute for Planning
and Promotion of Electrical Solutions (Ipse). The Governor’s
Office of Vaupés has contributed $1,200 million. The bid
will close on October 31.
SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND GENERATION OF EMPLOYMENT
• $400 BILLION DELIVERED TO SMALL
PRODUCERS: in the first eight months of 2005 the resources
loaned to farmers of Colombia
surpassed $1.3 trillion pesos, representing growth of 13.5% with
respect to the $1.2 trillion in the same period of 2002. The
loans from the Fund that are targeted at small producers presented
growth of 66.9%, going from $240 billion pesos from January to
August 2004, to $400 billion in the same period this year. On
their part, associative loans grew 9.6%, going from $208 billion
in the first eight months of 2004 to $228 billion in the same
period in 2005.
• HYPERMARKET SALES GREW 11.2%: This figure reflects the growth in sales in large retail stores
and hypermarkets in the
second quarter of 2005, compared to 2004, according to DANE.
Between April and June, these companies hired 78,767 people.
In constant prices, sales grew from $1.6 trillion in the second
quarter of 2004 to $1.8 trillion in the same period of 2005.
• HOTEL OCCUPATION GREW BY 54%
IN 2005: this figure is
three points higher than in 2004. The growing rates recorded
by the country’s hotel industry have been sustained in
recent months. Hotel occupation rates in cities such as Bogotá and
Cartagena are on average 70%. In Medellín and Cali the
percentage of hotel occupation oscillates between 60% and 65%.
The dynamism of tourism and hotel occupation at tourism destinations
such as the Coffee growing sector and the Eastern Llanos is notable.
• VEHICLE SALES INCREASED BY
45% IN THE SECOND QUARTER: sales of automobiles increased in the
second quarter of 2005,
in comparison to the same period in 2004. DANE reported that,
while 31,358 cars were sold during that period in 2004, that
number grew to 45,479 in the same period in 2005. Fifty-eight
point seven percent of those vehicles were private vehicles,
14% were for public transportation, 13% were pick-ups, 8% campers,
and 6% trucks. Of the close to 45,500 automobiles purchased between
April and June 2005, 17,193 were imported, and 28,286 were produced
in Colombia.
STATE EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY
• COLOMBIA REDUCES POVERTY: the World Bank representative
to Colombia, Alberto Chueca Mora, stated that Colombia has made
significant efforts and has produced results in the attempt to
reduce poverty and increase development. “This country
is doing well. It is doing its job. All the indicators show significant
growth, for example, in the increase of both national and foreign
investments, in exports, in the fall in unemployment, in controlled
inflation, and in a good economic policy”, affirmed Chueca.
(FIN/JHINA/CIE)
September 16, 2005
