Colombia plans to spend 250 billion on development of country
2023.02.07 04:27
Colombia plans to spend 250 billion on development of country
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – The social and economic investments that the government of Colombia plans to make over the next four years were detailed in a $247.1 billion four-year development plan that was presented to lawmakers on Monday.
The so-called National Development Plan must be approved by Congress, where leftist President Gustavo Petro has formed a coalition that passed a tax reform easily last year. However, there has been more opposition to proposed reforms of the health system and pensions.
Annual budgets, royalties from oil and mining projects, and resources from municipalities and provinces all over the country are typically used to fund development plans.
The first leftist leader of Colombia, Petro, has pledged to seek peace or make concessions to armed groups, reduce poverty, expand access to health care and education, and safeguard the environment.
The development plan aims to reduce the number of people living in extreme poverty to a single digit, use surplus funds from coal and oil to ensure a smooth transition to clean energy, and give poor farmers nearly 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of land to grow food.
If the plan is approved, Petro would also be granted extraordinary authority to sign decrees or regulations regarding matters such as the regulation of alternative uses of coca, the main ingredient in cocaine, and cannabis as well as the closure or restructuring of electricity companies that are majority owned by the state.
Petro says he wants to end the internal armed conflict in Colombia, which has been going on for almost six decades and caused millions of people to be displaced.
He has restarted negotiations with the leftist rebels of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and has promised to fully implement a 2016 peace agreement with the now-demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
In addition, Petro has offered drug trafficking-related criminal gangs the chance to surrender in exchange for lenient sentences.
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