Marcos Fava Neves

Colombia: an example of the role of governments

By Marcos Fava Neves (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-07-05 16:22

Based on presentations from Government, a second wave of development is now needed. How to innovate? According to their 2032 plan, Colombia is focused to build some world class business, with regional commissions of competitiveness. The new Government, elected with almost 70 percent of the votes, promised to continue a strong and dynamic economic development, with social policies that allow generation of opportunities and inclusion, since there is a lot to be done with millions of people still in poverty, exclusion, violence and drugs. It is a permanent battle.

It is a pleasure to talk to Colombians. Medellin is a happy city, a city with hope. We can feel this with taxi drivers, which are always a wonderful search of information and have terrible stories from the past to tell. One exciting visit in Medellin is the Metro system. There is a "metro culture" that makes this public facility really an institution, admired, respected and protected by the community. You can find music, it is clean, has libraries and other sources of entertainment. It is not common to see this in less developed nations.

There is one metro line that runs north to south, since the city is a valley surrounded by high mountains in the east and west sides. In some parts of this line, there is the "Metrocable", a system of cable cars that links the metro line towards the top of the mountains, full of slums (called "comunas"), integrating these forgotten regions to the city. Places where a person would take one hour walking up the mountain after working all day, now takes 10 to 15 minutes in the cable car. There are some stations during the travelling, where people can get in and out. Libraries, cultural centers, leisure/sport facilities, playgrounds for kids were built in these poor communities and these public investments led to an individual effort of people to make life better, improving the houses, the surroundings and giving citizenship and inclusion. It is a place to be visited, one of the most beautiful inclusion initiatives that I have seen.

Governments have the important role of economic growth, income generation and distribution, geographical equilibrium and access to opportunities. Promoting a favorable environment for development of clusters is one possibility, enhancing coordination, improving innovations and technological transfer, reducing lack of trust among agents and promoting exports and access to markets. To visit Medellin and Colombia is an injection of hope that we can change, even in the most difficult situations.

The author is professor of strategic planning and food chains at the School of Economics and Business, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (www.favaneves.org) and international speaker