COLOMBIA, A POSITIVE COUNTRY
Prepared by:
Coordination of Internal and External
Communications Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Relations
• Tariff Preferences in Russia: As a result of the 3rd Colombian-Russian Intergovernmental Mixed Commission, Colombia will have tariff preferences to export its products to Russia, including meat, flowers, packaged coffee, confectioned textiles, bananas, sweets, mango and cocoa beans. The agreement will give Colombia access to a market of 120 million people, which grows at an approximate annual rate of 6%.
• Filming Foreign Films in Colombia: Love in the Times of Cholera , based on the novel with the same title by the Colombian Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez, will be filmed in Cartagena by American producers. Consequently, the Colombian Government has set out to promote the country's image and encourage international film production in the country, by means of designing a policy which includes a promotion mechanism and incentives for international producers.
• Way Made for the Opportunity Bank: The Opportunity Bank will start out with a 120 billion peso contribution from the Granbanco Bancafé, with a credit system run by two companies. The first will promote credits for the people, and the second will promote technology in order to reach the most remote areas of the country. The National Council for Economic and Social Policy (CONPES for its initials in Spanish) gave authorization to create the bank.
• Malaria to be Controlled at the Borders: The Ministry of Foreign Relations signed an agreement with the Andean Health Organism by which an office of the Hipólito Unanue Agreement will open in Colombia. The office's objective will be to control malaria in the poorest areas of the country and near the borders with Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. The priority will be to control this mortal disease in places lacking or with difficult access to healthcare services.
• Colombia Protects its Children: The nutrition and education subsidies granted by the Government through the Families in Action program, ascribed to the Presidential Agenda for Social Action and International Cooperation , has benefited 1,364,217 children- of which 179,231 children are from forcefully displaced families and the rest belong to SISBEN level 1 (SISBEN are the Spanish initials for is the Identification of State Subsidies Beneficiaries System). The goal is to have benefited 1.5 million children by the end of the four-year presidential term, and 39,600 children in the program will receive the subsidy in the next few days.
• Teachers are Trained: According to the assessment on the formation, evaluation, and wellbeing of Colombian teachers, the Ministry of Education achieved its goal of training 100,000 teachers throughout the four-year term. As part of the Education Revolution policy, 100,935 teachers have been trained in several areas, among them basic and working skills, use of public libraries, use of TV and radio, and virtual environments & new technologies.
• Government sees to Unemployment: Since the beginning of this administration, 203,075 Colombians have received unemployment subsidies thanks to Law 789 passed in December 2002. Subsidies are given in food, health and education vouchers, each of which amounts to 1.5 minimum wages. This semester, the Ministry of Social Protection plans to give 59,500 more subsidies to those who have lost their jobs.
• Foreign Debt Decreases: According to a report by the Colombian central bank ( Banco de la República ), the country's foreign debt decreased by 952 million US dollars over the last year, going from 39.61 billion US$ in February 2005, public and private debt, to 38.65 billion US$ in February 2006. Of the latter, 24.6 billion US$ are from the public sector's loan acquisitions and contracting, while the remaining 14,490 US$ are the private sector's obligations outside of the country.
• Disbursements to Small and Medium Companies are Met: The four-year term has not come to an end yet and Bancoldex already met its goal of disbursing 2.5 trillion pesos to small and medium companies. Bancoldex (Spanish initials for: Commerce and Entrepreneurial Development Bank) met 102.2% of its goal after disbursing 2.56 trillion pesos in 27,988 operations.
• Report Reveals That Banks Grow: A Financial Superintendency Report reveals that national, foreign capital, and cooperation sector banks increased their profits by 35. 3% between January and March 2006, as compared to the same period of the previous year, going from 753.8 billion peso earnings in 2005 to 1.27 trillion peso earnings in 2006.
• Government Rebuilds Wreckage of Violence: During this administration, the Colombian Government has rebuilt 6,670 houses and 267 social infrastructure works in 146 municipalities across the country. Over 28 billion pesos have been invested towards reconstructing areas where the infrastructure has suffered severe attacks from terrorist groups. Hence, the Government has assisted townships affected by the violence and has allocated resources for reconstructing homes whose repair costs range between 1 and 8 minimum wages.
• Quality of Education Improves: The Ministry of Education reported that the Knowledge Exams carried out by the Colombian Institute for the Promotion of Secondary Education (ICFES for its initials in Spanish) to 5 th and 9 th graders in October 2005 demonstrated that the quality of education has improved. Students were tested in math, verbal skills, natural sciences and social sciences, proving to verbal to be the strongest area in both groups.
• Tender to Manage Assets: Until 31 May 2006, the National Government will keep open the tender to administer the Victims' Reparation Fund's real estate and movable assets, in urban a rural areas alike. Those interested in participating can visit www.accionsocial.gov.co for more information.
(FIN/RPAV/CIE)
May 19, 2006