The president said that “this replaces what we had called forced investment, meaning that we will not have to go to the Congress of the Republic to make a law,” he emphasized, indicating that “it is a pact, an agreement, an accord between the public and private sectors.”
“The panel that met today and will continue to meet to verify that the sectoral objectives and the amount of money are effectively being transferred to the productive activities of Colombians is an innovative example even for the world,” he said.
Bogota, August 27, 2024
Following a meeting with representatives of the country’s public and private banks, in which they analyzed the proposal for economic reactivation, President Gustavo Petro announced that an agreement was reached to increase by $55 billion, over the next 18 months, credits for productive activities in construction and housing improvements, industry and manufacturing, agriculture and tourism.
At the end of the meeting, which was held at the Casa de Nariño and was attended by more than 20 executives from public and private banks, the head of state explained that “a lady who makes jeans or shirts; a man who produces pineapple in agriculture, an association of bricklayers or single mothers in a working-class neighborhood, a small construction company in Colombia, will be able to receive much more credit than was previously allocated.”
“This replaces what we had called forced investment, meaning that we will not have to go to the Congress of the Republic to make a law,” the president emphasized, indicating that “it is a pact, an agreement, an accord between the public and private sectors.”
He also commented that “the panel that met today and will continue to meet to verify that the sectoral objectives and the amount of money are effectively being transferred to the productive activities of Colombians, is an innovative example even for the world.”
“This table is a great public and private economic planning apparatus, derived from the fact that what we are doing here is implementing the program for which the Colombian people voted in the sense of encouraging production as a basis for national prosperity, which, if successful, will be an example even for the world,” he reiterated.
He said that what is being done is “predetermining objectives, allocating resources, not only public but private, in a common effort that ultimately leads to the prosperity of Colombian society, a greater balance from the point of view of social equity and fundamentally a strengthening of the national economy.”
President Petro recalled that the agreement is the result of “several important joint work sessions, which began in Manizales, and we have reached an example of agreement; there are still other packages missing, those legislative ones, of projects that will also have to do with the economic reactivation of Colombia.”
This is how the investment will be
When questioned by the media about where the resources would come from, the head of state said that “as everywhere else in the world, from savings to investment. That is the fundamental equation of economic equilibrium when savings are equal to investment.”
“So, where does investment in savings in Colombia come from? This is, let’s say, savings that are deposited with great confidence in private banks, some in public banks, and have been directed to different sectors for investment,” he noted.
He said that “what we have done here is to invest a little more in the sectors that can represent more jobs and more wealth for society as a whole.”
He went on to explain: “For example, in housing, although we added housing improvements in working-class neighborhoods, 31.8 billion pesos had been delivered in the last 18 months throughout the Colombian financial system; in the next 18 months, 40.6 billion will be delivered.”
“In manufacturing, energy transition, installing solar panels, strengthening Colombian industry, the export industry and manufacturing, which is fundamentally made up of entrepreneurs and women, 128 billion pesos had been delivered in the last 18 months. Now we are going to jump, and it is the largest growth, to 163.4 billion pesos.”
“In the agricultural sector, which is where we have had the most success in economic growth, up to the last 18 months 26.1 billion pesos had been invested in loans, now we are going to increase this to 32.1 billion pesos.”
“In tourism, which is one of the fastest growing sectors in Colombia, in the last 18 months the Colombian financial system has provided 6.8 billion pesos in credit, now we are going to provide 8.4 billion pesos.”
Based on the above, he emphasized that “it is a leap in these sectors that allows them to grow faster, but it has the advantage that this is where most of the jobs in Colombia are located and that they can drive the entire national economy towards growth figures that are even more important than those we have had in Colombia, which is what we call reactivation.”
Finally, the president of Asobancaria, Jonathan Malagón, highlighted the agreement and recalled that it was the result of “19 work sessions” that managed to consolidate this pact.
(Fin/for)
