The government of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Friday announced a $260 billion investment to reduce the country’s poverty rate with 5.6 percentage points.
Santos announced he plans to reduce the poverty rate from 45.5% to 39.9%, meaning that at the end of his term as president the living standard of two and a half million Colombians will have to be improved to be above the official poverty line.
The National Development Plan of which the poverty reduction is part of is the government’s main plan for the coming four years and includes stronger political and economic ties with Asian nations, the diminishing of territories under control of illegal armed groups and the increase of national oil production to one and a half barrels a day. During its administration, Santos hopes to ensure an average economic growth of 1.2% per year.
Santos stressed that for the first time in the country’s history, the respect of human rights was included in the National Development Plan and that the government hopes to make the justice system more effective to reduce urban crime.