World Bank says that Poverty in Colombia has Diminished

The president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, highlighted the economic progress sustaining Colombia, although he recognized that the country pays more infrastructure cost compared to other nations that have the same investments. “Colombia has improved a lot in the competitiveness of its economy, but the infrastructure of the economy still adds a lot of costs”, assured Zoellick from the Nariño House.

The high functionary added that the principal reason the came to Colombia was because of a letter that he received from President Alvaro Uribe that he might have a clearer vision of the country. “To listen and learn about how we can be a better partner to Colombia”, he emphasized.

Zoellick indicated that he felt proud of having driven and negotiated the Free Trade Treaty between Colombia and the United States because he considers it “part of a package that is supporting the success of Colombia”.

In his manner of seeing it, as long as the United States Congress approves the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia, “an area of free commerce in the western hemisphere shall be created that shall comprise three quarters of the people in the western hemisphere and two thirds of the economy”.

The president of the World Bank said that Colombia, under the leadership of President Uribe, “has been growing continually and poverty has diminished”. Although, he qualified that the challenge for the government is to “maintain sustainable economic rates of growth and expand the economic opportunities and policies to all its citizens”.

In his fleeting visit to Colombia, Zoellick met with Uribe and various ministers with whom he treated themes related to communications, transportation, road infrastructure, and education credit. Colombia was the second biggest associate of the World Bank in Latin America during 2007 with a budget of around 1.2 billion dollars.

Zoellick detailed the credit management that the Colombian Institute of Educative Credit and Interior Technical Studies developed through the Access Project that authorizes education loans to low income university students in distant regions of the country.

“It is a marvelous program that permits more people around Colombia to get university titles and also to contribute to their communities and to their country”, indicated the high executive in an encounter with 10 youth from different regions and universities of the country.