Colombia, A Positive Country
Prepared by:
Affairs Coordinator
Internal and External Communications
Ministry of Foreign Relations
ON THE FRONT PAGE
• ECHO, A PIECE OF COLOMBIA: Artesanías de Colombia
opened Echo, a store right in the middle of Soho, a New York
zone with a concentration of decorators, artists, and stores
with luxury items. It is located in a red building, and on the
first of the three floors the store sells hammocks, traditional
Colombian hats, woven bags called ‘mochilas’, and
other samples of handcrafted goods to the rhythm of songs by
Carlos Vives, Juanes, and Shakira.
• HONDA NOMINATED AS UNESCO WORLD
HERITAGE SITE: the historic and cultural value of this city
in the north of Tolima could
make it worthy of the distinction of being a world heritage site
for all humanity. The importance this city had four centuries
ago, its influence on the era, and its architectural design are
motives for this population to be known worldwide, as is the
case with Cartagena or Mompox.
• CARTAGENA HOST TO WTO IN 2007: the government is set on making Cartagena the headquarters
for the Assembly of the
World Tourism Organization in 2007. Vice President Francisco
Santos traveled to Madrid to generate a favorable atmosphere
in Europe in this sense, although the official candidature of
the Colombian city will be formalized next November 25 in Senegal.
Cartagena is a world heritage site for all humanity, and one
of the ports with the greatest level of activity and growth in
the Caribbean. The WTO, made up of 144 countries, is headquartered
in Madrid.
• COLOMBIA IN FASHION WEEK IN
SPAIN: Judy Hazbún,
the designer from Barranquilla, was invited to the third annual
Fashion Week in Spain, to be held from September 27 to 29. Her
latest collection blanco y negro (Black and White), presented
in the recent Colombiamoda fair, attracted the attention of the
event organizers. Santander está de moda, 250 aniversario
(Santander is in Fashion, 250th Anniversary), is the theme for
the week, which will render homage to Guatemala, Venezuela, and
Colombia.
SOCIAL INVESTMENT
• ONE MILLION CHILDREN’S BREAKFASTS: the government
awarded the public bid that will permit it to meet the goal established
for vulnerable boys and girls under 6 years of age across the
country, though the ICBF (Colombian Family Welfare Institute).
The breakfasts will benefit 165,606 additional boys and girls
who live in the Departments of Valle, Cauca, Nariño, and
Putumayo. The minors will receive a free nutritional complement,
in which more than $70,000 million pesos have been invested.
SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND GENERATION OF EMPLOYMENT
• FTA ON THE INTERNET: to facilitate
understanding of the most important commercial negotiation
process that the country
has undertaken, the government established a new web site that
contains all the information on the Free Trade Agreement negotiation
with the United States. At www.tlc.gov.co a cybernaut can find
information on everything from what is an FTA, to links with
all the national and international entities that, in one way
or another, are involved in the negotiation.
• THE COFFEE GROWING REGION,
INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL DESTINATION: the goal of the coffee growing region is to strengthen its position
as the first travel destination for tourism in Colombia. A total
of eight wholesale tourism company operators from Ecuador manage
600 travel agencies that sell Caldas, Quindío, and Risaralda
as destinations for tourism for Ecuadorians. Ecuador is, together
with Venezuela, Spain, and the United States, one of the four
countries that Proexport Colombia validated and identified as
potential sources for tourists to the Coffee Growing Region,
which is considered today to be the second most important destination
in Colombia, after Cartagena.
• COLOMBIA TO PROVIDE CONSULTING
FOR FASHION IN COSTA RICA: Colombia will give a hand to several
Costa Rican textile
companies as part of a program to introduce Costa Rica as an
international fashion producer. Experts from the Colombian Fashion
Institute (INEXMODA) will give a first workshop from October
18 to 20 to representatives from 25 local firms.
STATE EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY
• TEACHERS CHOSEN BY MERIT: for
the first time in Colombia, the Afro-Colombian and Raizal (Caribbean
Black) communities will
be able to select their own teachers for elementary and middle
school education, based on merit. The government established
this change by means of Decree 3323 by the Ministry of Education,
which will regulate the selection process for these teachers.
The process will be carried out in the last quarter of this year,
in conjunction with the general teacher selection that will be
carried out in Colombia, and which will fill the spots still
vacant after the first selection process. Sign-up and the publication
of the results will be handled by ICFES www.icfes.gov.co.
• AUDIT OF ENTITIES SEIZED BY
THE STATE: the National Directorate of Drug Control revealed that
it will receive proposals
until the 30th of this month to contract auditing services for
that organization. Those interested may present any questions
about the offer and the requirements. The entity contracted must
audit several commercial entities seized by the state as part
of an asset forfeiture process.
• COLOMBIA SURPASSED GOAL FOR
TAX COLLECTIONS: taxes collected in Colombia grew by 14% ($29.8
trillion) for the period from
January to August 2005, in comparison to the same period last
year, revealed the government.
DEMOCRATIC SECURITY
• ARMY TO BE REINFORCED WITH
16 THOUSAND MEN: the new
regular soldiers will begin their mandatory military service
starting on October 11, and will reinforce the government’s
Democratic Security policy. The uniformed personnel will be incorporated
into the 58 districts of the 12 recruiting zones, and will form
a part of different tactical units.
• GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND TO DONATE
390 THOUSAND EUROS TO THE PEACE PROCESS: this economic aid
has the goal of supporting
the accompaniment and verification of the peace process with
the self defense groups by the OAS verification mission. The
funds were approved in June, will be disbursed over three years,
and there will be an annual review of human rights performance.
Other countries that have donated to the OAS mission are Holland,
Sweden, and the United States.
(FIN/JHINA/CIE)
September 23, 2005
