Basis of the National Plan of Development is ready

GOVERNMENT PRESENTED ITS "NAVIGATION CHART"

Bogotá, November 15 (CNE) – The Government presented today the basis of what is going to be the development strategy of President Uribe’s administration, which contemplates investments for 108 billion pesos.

The National Plan of Development Towards a Communal State, the "navigation chart" for the next four years, centers its priorities on the following elements: Democratic Security polices and strategies, employment generation and growth, termination of inequality, Educational Revolution, and the renovation of Public Administration.

The basis of the National Plan of Development was approved today by the National Board of Economic and Social Policies (Conpes, for its acronym in Spanish), and afterwards, it was presented to the members of the Planning National Board.

The investments of the National Plan of Development will benefit social expenditure with 65,7 billion pesos, the Government’s infrastructure with 27,6 billion pesos, and Defense with 3,2 billion pesos.

"The Development Plan contains a number of institutional changes related to the renovation of the State. It is consistent with growth, and with external and internal financing," explained Santiago Montenegro, National Planning Director.

The Plan also contains the 100 elements of the Democratic Manifest, which was the program that the current Head of State presented to Colombians during his election campaign.

Consequently, the Plan responds to the expectations of the country’s citizens. Besides, according to Montenegro, this is the first time in many years that the initiative is designed without hiring external consultants. This fact coherently matches with Uribe’s austerity policy.

The following aspects constitute the Plan’s philosophy, according to the Government: a State that does not accept corruption; rise of social investment on the society’s most abandoned sectors; elimination of bureaucracy and political maneuvering.

The Democratic Security policy, included on the Plan, was designed by the Government to assure the country’s prosperity. This, because the defense of Democracy and the tranquility of Colombians and investors will support the measurements destined to economic recuperation.

The recovery of security in highways and the number of individuals that are linked to the Citizen Cooperation Net are results of this policy.

Through economic reactivation, and the impulse of specific policies and the Labor Reform, the Government pretends to generate more than 300,000 employments and, perhaps, to reduce the unemployment rate to a 10% by the end of the current administration.

The Educational Revolution will increase the quota of elemental, medium, and superior education.

Another goal of President Uribe is to end the social inequality between the rich and the poor, and between men and women of all races. To accomplish this objective, the coverage of education levels shall be increased, and poor people will count with better opportunities.