After returning from the World Economic Forum, President Juan Manuel Santos said that the world’s perception of Colombia is changing.
“It was a successful visit,” Santos told RCN Radio Friday. He said that the visit aroused interest for France to invest in Colombia and added that, “The image of our country is changing, now they don’t make references to drug trafficking or guerrillas.”
The president’s website said that U.K.-based bank HSBC named Colombia as one of six nations expected to have greater global economic “dynamism” in the coming years.
Colombia has been named in recent months by HSBC as one of the six CIVETS nations (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa) expected to have bright economic futures.
Colombia is the only Latin American country that the HSBC includes in this group because it is predicted to be the country that will have the best performance in the region in the next 40 years, according to Santos.
The head of state also said that this decade will be the decade of Latin America, and that therefore Colombia must work jointly with other countries to take advantage of the momentum of the region.
The president cut short his trip to Switzerland to return to Colombia following a coal mine explosion Wednesday that killed 21 miners.