Colombia,
A Positive Country
Prepared by:
Affairs Coordinator
Internal and External Communications
Ministry of Foreign Relations
ON THE FRONT PAGE
• A COLOMBIAN HELPS TO DISCOVER
A GENE RELATED TO TUBERCULOSIS: After three years of work,
Mauricio Rojas, member of the Cellular
and Immunogenetic Immunology Group at the University of Antioquia,
together with his colleagues at the University of Harvard (United
States), discovered a gene related to the development of tuberculosis
in humans. Medicines have been developed for treatment that activate
the production of the protein generated by the Ipr1 gene, which
helps the body respond well to a possible attack by that type
of bacteria.
• THE SHADOW OF THE WALKER: the Colombian movie, La sombra
del caminante (The Shadow of the Walker), written and directed
by Ciro Guerra, will participate, in representation of Colombia,
in the Oscars in 2006. The movie is a co-production by Ciudad
Lunar and Tucán Producciones, which narrates the history
of Mañe, a disabled person who walks the streets trying
to survive, and who meets an unusual person, a man who carries
people on his back in downtown Bogotá for $500 pesos.
SOCIAL INVESTMENT
• SUBSIDIES FOR SENIORS: on September
12, the government will begin a new cycle of subsidies under
the program for support
to seniors. From September 12 to 20, $30 billion pesos will be
paid across 1,085 municipalities. Five hundred thousand subsidies
will go to 166,000 seniors. Depending on the municipality, the
payments will be made every two or three months. On October 15,
the government will serve the first lunches, as part of the program,
to 400,000 elderly citizens in the country who will begin to
receive this nutritional aid. The program will benefit more than
10 thousand indigenous seniors in Colombia who will receive the
lunch on their respective reserves.
SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND GENERATION OF EMPLOYMENT
• RON VIEJO DE CALDAS, ONE OF
THE BEST: in Brussels, an
association of chefs and food tasters from Europe awarded the
Prize for Superior Taste 2005, a type of ‘Nobel prize’ for
food and drink, to Ron Viejo de Caldas (Old Rum from Caldas).
The prize is awarded by the International Taste and Quality Institute –Itqi – an
independent organization that promotes excellence in this area.
Ron Viejo is exported to 11 countries in Europe, Asia, and America,
and its sales have grown 26.2% this year.
• MIPYMES LOOKS FOR OPPORTUNITIES
IN JAPAN: after President
Alvaro Uribe’s visit to Japan last April, the Prime Minister
of that country, Junichiro Koizumi expressed an interest in “cooperating
with the efforts by the public and private sector in Colombia
to increase mutual follow-up to strengthen commerce and bilateral
investment.” That government is interested in transferring
knowledge to the mipymes (micro, small, and medium-sized businesses).
The mipymes designated a seven-person delegation, including students,
industry leaders and businessmen, to travel to Japan in October,
to look for business opportunities.
• RIGHT TO PENSIONS IN SPAIN: Colombia
and Spain signed a bilateral convention to benefit workers
who are affiliated
or have been affiliated in the past to the social security systems
in the two countries, and their beneficiaries in their families,
survivors, or those to whom rights to the pension have been transferred.
The convention will be applicable depending on the country where
the Colombian or Spanish worker is located. For Colombian workers
living in Spain, the pension will be granted under the legislation
for the Spanish Social Security System regarding disability,
aging, death, and survival. The workers protected by the two
social security systems for pensions will have the same rights
and obligations established for the workers of each country.
• IN AUGUST 2005 INFLATION WAS
0%: for the third time since the Consumer Price Index (IPC
for the initials in Spanish)
was created, the inflation rate for a month was equal to zero,
according to the DANE. The first month in which inflation was
0% was in January 1970, and the second time was in August 1975.
The increase in the cost of living in August 2005 was 0%, the
lowest in the last 17 years, since August of 1988 when it was
0.18%. During the first 8 months of this year inflation totaled
3.98%, the lowest figure for the last 35 years.
•
HOTEL BUSINESS CONFERENCE: 52 businessmen from 13 countries
in the Americas and the Caribbean have confirmed their attendance
at the first business conference for the hotel sector, to be
held on September 15 and 16 in the Cartagena Convention Center.
The event will gather the buyers and sellers for the services
and supplies for this sector in one place, during the Eleventh
Annual Hotel and Gastronomy Fair, Expocotelco 2005. The government’s
goal is to improve the ability to compete of the businesses
in this sector, giving its sales greater dynamism, and moving
toward the internationalization of Colombian tourism.
STATE EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY
• COLOMBIA MOVES UP 4 PLACES
IN THE UN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX: Colombian improved its 2003 human development indicators,
going from spot number 73 to spot 69 in the Human Development
Index Report, which was presented to the world this Wednesday
by the United Nations. President Alvaro Uribe expressed his satisfaction
at Colombia’s improvement, thanks to the efforts made in
the economy and education. “We trust that with the efforts
in education and the social area, the results for 2004 and 2005
will show even more improvement for the country.”
DEMOCRATIC SECURITY
• RECORD FOR MANUAL ERADICATION
OF COCA: Colombia has
just beat the world record for forced manual eradication of coca
cultivations, by destroying more than 17 thousand hectares so
far this year. The work was done by the Mobile Groups for Manual
Eradication from the Presidential Program Against Cultivation,
the National Police, and the Armed Forces. In 1999, Bolivia managed
to eradicate 16,999 hectares, in a year in which Colombia eradicated
only 1,024 hectares, according to the data from the National
Narcotics Directorate. The government’s ambition is to
manually eradicate 40 thousand hectares of coca and opium poppy,
in what remains of the year.
• $2,700 MILLION PAID TO FOREST
GUARD FAMILIES: The government distributed these funds to 4,586
Forest Guard Families in Huila,
in payment for work they have done on their small farms. Their
work has kept free of illicit crops an area of 212,000 hectares
classified as having great environmental importance. The goal
of the program in Huila is to create community funds to co-finance
productive projects in the medium and long run, to allow the
Forest Guards to be competitive in national and international
markets.
•
HIGH MOUNTAIN BATTALION IN EL PERIJÁ: with an investment
of $35 billion pesos, the government will activate a High Mountain
Battalion in the Serranía del Perijá (Cesar)
in 2006, which will have the goal of neutralizing the action
of the terrorist groups that operate in that region. The Battalion
will be made up initially by 300 uniformed personnel, and will
join those already created by the current government in La
Bota Caucana, in Farallones de Cali, in Chiscas Boyacá and
in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Santa Marta, in addition
to the one already existing in Sumapaz.
(FIN/JHINA/CIE)
September 9, 2005
