Colombia, A Positive Country

Prepared by:
Affairs Coordinator
Internal and External Communications
Ministry of Foreign Relations

ON THE FRONT PAGE

• WORLD SKATING CHAMPIONS: the members of the Colombian roller speed skating team who participated in the world championship in Suzhou, China, made away with most of the medals. Colombia dominated with 39 medals, 17 gold, 10 silver, and 12 bronze, followed by the United States (18, 13 gold) and Italy (32, 8 gold).

• TOURIST INNS TO ENJOY: Findeter’s new line of credit has provided loans of more than $28 billion pesos for 710 tourist inns, of which 264 are finished. These new possibilities for both tourists and locals will continue to be developed and promoted in every municipality. With Law 812 of 2003, the government created the Findeter line of credit to finance tourism activities, by means of which another $40 billion pesos in projects have been approved, and potential businesses have been identified in the amount of $104 billion.

SOCIAL INVESTMENT

• US $400 MILLION IN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION: the government will receive cooperation resources in an amount close to US $400 million in 2006. The funds will foment the development of research in the area of international cooperation and provide prizes for the best studies carried out by universities or research centers on this topic.

• NEW LIBRARY IN CAQUETA: the new library is located in the “Universidad de la Amazonía” (Amazon University), in the capital city of that Department. $4,339 million pesos were invested in the work, of which 3,100 million came from the University’s own resources, 700 million from a bank loan disbursed to the educational institution, and $539 million from the government. It has a computer room equipped with 69 computers and Internet access, and connected with universities and virtual libraries, both national and foreign.

SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND GENERATION OF EMPLOYMENT

• COLOMBIAN ECONOMY DOING VERY WELL: the International Monetary Fund stated that the Colombian economy continues to perform well in 2005 and that the landscape in the medium run looks very favorable. The director of the IMF mission, Robert Rennhack, said that confidence has improved, international reserves are increasing, investment and exports are growing at accelerated rates, and inflation is firmly under control.

• COLOMBIA EXPORTED US $10,194 MILLION: the figure for exports during the first semester of 2005 was 37.2% greater than in the same period of 2004. During the same time period the balance of trade recorded a surplus of US $891.9 million. The DANE specified that the increase in the Colombian sales outside the country between last January and June came from a 48.4% increase in exports of the four traditional products in the country: coffee, oil, coal, and ferronickel.

• UNEMPLOYMENT WENT DOWN 11.8%: unemployment went down in July this year, representing a decrease of 1.1 percentage points with respect to the same month in 2004, when this indicator was at 12.9%. According to DANE, the number of Colombians with employment increased by 546,100 people, going from 17,785,820 to 18, 331,920 workers.

• SALES OUTSIDE THE COUNTRY INCREASED BY 47.3%: sales during the first six months of this year reached US $10,194 million, which represents a growth of 37.2% with respect to the US $7,430.3 million obtained in the same period in 2004. Of the US $10,194 million in sales outside the country, 5,162 million came from non-traditional exports, which grew by 27.8%, and 5,032 from traditional products, which increased by 48.4%.

• INFLATION IN AUGUST WAS 0%: for the third time since the Consumer Price Index was created, a monthly inflation rate was equal to zero, according to the DANE. The first month in which the inflation rate was 0% was in January of 1970, and the second was in August of 1975.

STATE EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY

• WIDEBAND IN THE CITIES: Colombia Telecomunicaciones SA ESP, Telecom, presented a wideband project that will benefit 34 cities in the country, and that implies an investment of $175 billion pesos. Starting in August 2005, Colombians now have a high-speed unlimited navigation service that does not tie up the telephone line, and with services of virtual hard disk, a personal or business web page, support via telephone and chat 24 hours a day, national roaming, anti-virus, and anti-spam.

• CENSUS TAKEN IN FIRST DEPARTMENT, LA GUAJIRA: on Friday September 2, the gathering of information began in the 15 municipalities, and in two weeks the census will be fully completed. Members of the indigenous communities are in charge of gathering the information. A total of 1,455 people were trained and will participate in the entire process. The Arhuacos, Kogui, Wiwa, and Kankuamo peoples predominate in that Department.

DEMOCRATIC SECURITY

• SECURITY AND EDUCATION FOR PEACE: President Álvaro Uribe reiterated that a dialogue with the guerrilla groups will come when they no longer have any military options, as a result of a firm security policy, such as his government has been implementing. Peace will become sustainable with economic growth, with social investment, with a revolution of opportunities, and these will come through education, he expressed.

(FIN/JHINA/CIE)
September 2, 2005