He worked at the development bank. He served as a special advisor. He was elected in june of 2018 and assumed his office in august 2018. He will make some opening remarks and then following that i will come up and preside over some questions and then have anybody here who wants to ask a question be able to do so. We will go until exactly 9 30. Everything is on the record, and so please when you do have a question standup, identify yourself, your affiliation and then ask a question, not a long statement. That would be appreciated, and one question per person would be appreciated. Okay, its my honor to do you introduce the president of colombia, president duque. Thank you so much. Good morning. Its a great pleasure for me to be here with you. I want to thank you, david, for your introduction. I want to welcome friends from different think tanks, former public servants, members of the International Development bank organizations. So my great purpose of this morning is to, in ten minutes, try to describe where is colombia heading to, and why its very important what is taking place in colombia nowadays. So after i finish that we will open this session for q a. Let me begin this morning by saying that colombia is in the process of a great transformation. When i ran for the presidency, i said that i wanted a colombiabased on three pillars. Legality, which is the rule of law. Entrepreneurship, which means that colombia must embrace as no time before the entrepreneurial spirit, be able to call for more International Investment in the country, transform its economy, look towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and last but not least, which is the major objective of our administration, close the social gaps. So if i may put in terms of an equation, what we always said is legality plus entrepreneurship equals fairness for closing the social gaps. That is the reason why, since i embraced the cost of running for the presidency, i said that latin america is not divided between right and left. That latin america is witnessing a political spectrum where there will are two kinds of persons running countries. The demagogues and the pedagogues. The demagogues are those who, on a permanent basis, promise the holy land. We say in spanish [speaking spanish] so they try to sell a society full of promises, and at the end they end up destroying private initiative. They end up destroying liberties, weakening free media, weakening any form of citizen participation. And the pedagogues are the ones who orient society to big goals and big purposes. And they are aligned with promoting the entrepreneurial spirit, independent institutions, and obviously also motivate a permanent citizen participation. And i consider that our administration, and colombia itself, is a good example of pedagogy. Thats why weve been able to implement their important policies, and thats why when you look at where was colombia 20 years ago and where is it today, i think colombia has been one of the most important Success Stories in latin america. I must also say that the achievements that colombia has accomplished have also to do with a very important support from the International Community, and i want to highlight this morning, that colombia has received from the United States a very strong bipartisan and bicameral support when it comes to congress in order to achieve many of the most important transformations. But since one year ago our administration decided to move forward on the results. We decided that we wanted colombia to become a high income country. And that might not happen substantially in the next three years. You might ask why. Because colombia has an income per capita of less than 7000, while the rest of the oecd member countries have incomes per capita that are about 30,000. So the question is, how long would it take us to reach those levels of income . It will take us 100 years growing at 1 , or it can take us two decades or less if we grow above 5 . And thats what we want colombia to head. Thats what we want colombia to embrace, to be able to grow, and with that growth, close the social gaps here so the first thing we did a year ago is that we wanted colombia to differentiate from the rest of the countries in the region, and adopt a competitive, probusiness policy. So instead of looking at what happened in the past what we had tax reforms, with the state always want to spend more and they passed a check to the private sector with high levels of taxation that affected competitiveness, and we made the most important reforms in terms of lowering the corporate taxes too small, medium and large sized corporations. By that, just in one year, weve seen Foreign Direct Investment in colombia past 24 . We have seen also why latin america is expected to grow 0. 5 fisher, colombia is expected to grow above 3 . Why . Because we have been given the right signals. We also introduced important reforms in sectors like hell, and Information Technology where we pass the bill so that by 2022, 70 of the colombia population will have faster internet and will be moving to 5g networks throughout the country. Thats why we also introduced a reform to cut red tape. And in one year weve been able to digital digitalized, eliminate, or minimize more than 1000 procedures that were heavily costly for the private sector development. So those things are in motion. We also introduced the Fourth Industrial Revolution, centers and regulation. When the administration began, i remember i spoke to Charles Schwab and i said i want the World Economic forum to bring one of the Fourth Industrial Revolution centers to our country. They said that was going to take long, but, in fact, in less than a year we have the first, Fourth Industrial Revolution center in an hispanic speaking country and it is based on ai, irt, and blockchain. Weve also put together a mission to develop the local Capital Markets with the support of professor from mit and 80 other forms that were about to embrace are based on executive orders and a couple of reforms that should be taken to congress. But those things are happening, and colombia has also experienced in the last year the best years of the tourism sector. Last year we had 4. 2 million nonresident visitors, the highest rate in 15 years. So this you the numbers are going to be even better. And also Household Consumption rates have reached the highest in 44 months. Energy consumption which is a a good indicator of how the gdp is behaving is growing at 4. 1 , one of the highest of the last years. So i think colombia is open for business, has embraced entrepreneurship, and looks toward the future as the country that wants to become the Silicon Valley of latin america. I met a couple of months ago i saw him in new york city this week, and softbank, the Largest Technology Investment Bank in the world has created a fund of 5 billion for latin america. In the first visit to the region, he saw whats taking place in colombia and that already invested 1 billion in one Single Company in colombia. And they are looking at more companies and startups or firms that event in the market for three or four years with a high potential of becoming what is socalled unicorns come which are companies that grow at three digit levels and very fast. So this is what colombia looks like and want to look like in economic terms. Now, we need to see with clarity that any effort that we can make successfully on developing the private sector has to be connected with closing the social gaps. So i feel happy that in one year of our administration, we have been able to give strong signals, the highest budget ever in education, the highest budget ever on health. We have granted what we call subsidies of Interest Rate and down payment for the poorest of the poor to acquire housing, and in one year we have given more of those lines of credit and support than what was given in the last four years. And this also allows me to put the idea that it is not just the government giving the solutions, but its also allowing people to change their lives. We have made a program so that people were just think 120 per month with a fixed line of credit in terms of interest and a fixed line in terms of Monthly Payment coming becoming owners of a house in less than 15 years. Making this massively is going to be a major social success. But we have also brought water and sanitation in one year to more than 450,000 colombians. We have been able to take 16,000 families for the first time electricity, using individual solar panels. We have been able to see the first 80,000 students in december, number 67,000, that will go for free to public universities, connected to the programs that will give them their skills so that they can be successful in times of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. I think, at the same time we are making important reforms that are connected to entrepreneurship but at the same time to closing the social gaps when it comes to energy. We have enabled to put together a reform that allows us to pass from less than 60 megawatts of soft capacity nonprofessional renewals to get the 1500 by the end of our administration. And we will surpass the target. We passed the electric vehicle bill so that we have a cleaner transportation. We have proof for the first time in latin america, we created the First National council against deforestation and we have gotten deforestation to produce by 17 in just one year. And we have called for the pack t with other countries in amazon so that we can protect that very important sanctuary for biodiversity and for the world. So all this is happening and it is also connected with the rule of law. I believe in peace, but peace with what gelded. With legality. We are not at administration that plays politics with peace. And i think the worst mistake that was committed in the last years in colombia was that, for political reasons, the communes were divided between friends and enemies of peace. And, in fact, we are all friends at peace with the exception of those who want to embrace terrorism and violence to express themselves or to intimidate the population. Thats why we built a policy that is called peace with legality. That is highly compromised of making a Success Story out of the process of those of left criminality, who have left the weapons and want to engage into a path of legality, sharing with the rest of the colombian population for their lives. And in one year, with this policy we can make the right comparisons as i said it yesterday, in any event we had here in d. C. 20 20 years, 20 months of implementation asked for my oath of office, and within an office for 13 months. When you look at how many collective productive projects were approved before our oath of office, just two. Today, we are 29. Have approved 27, that are reaching more than 1400 former members of farc with alternatives for their lives. Regional focus Development Plans which are the cornerstone of the support for the colombian people, in those regions that were badly affected by terrorism, they saw that in 20 months of implementation for my administration, only two of those plans were created. We have already finished the 16th. We made 14 of those regional Development Plans happen by calling the people to get their takes, their prospects, their objectives. And we have called the private sector to actively participate in what we call words for taxes. More than 150 million have been used to attend those communities communities. And weve been also able to put together the First National catastrophe policy. That was crucial so that we can have a better policy framework for land, and to be able to differentiate the uses of land in favor of the most effective activities. We actually had great support from the United States and usaid i see your former ambassador whitaker who participated actively in the policy, and thank you for being here, ambassador. And we went to i found that was brutalized for many years by paramilitaries and guerrilla members. And we had the first massive land titling program have performed in colombia in a municipality. Not only we granted the titles but we made the formalization available, but we also made the multipurpose so we can use the land for the better needs of the people. So all those things are taking place in colombia. And i can say that peace with legality is based on two very important principles. Achieving a Success Story out of the reincorporation process, and be strong, hard, and bring to justice those who want to go back to criminality. But we have challenges. Yes, we do. And one of the major challenges has to do with the legal props because i think the biggest failure of peace colombia was that during peace colombia, the expansion of illegal crops grew at exponential levels. From 20152018 we passed 60,000 hectares of coca when we assumed office. The manual eradication groups in colombia that were above the 100 number in the year 2010 when we assumed office, there were only 23. 23. Today we have more than 110. And we have been able for the first time in seven years, with our determination, to put it into the exponential growth and start having a reduction. Why am i so insistent on this topic . Because with more coca, there will be less peace. There is. Silverr bullet. Bullet. All the measures are possible which are eradication, substitution, alternatives, services and having precision aerial spray when needed and considering that many of the fields are full of land mines who are supported by snipers that are paid by the cartel. So we need to combine them all because we definitely need to get rid of narco trafficking as the fuel of those illegal groups and last but not least, i must make a reference on venezuela because, whats happening in venezuela is not only a threat to colombia, its a threat to the regional security. The dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro has been supporting terrorist groups in their territory and thats only comparable with what the world saw with the taliban regime to bring al qaeda inside afghanistan to plot against the United States and the world. Well, maduro is doing the same thing with terrorist groups in his territory, thats why i strongly support the bravery of interim president guido not only to offer all the collaboration with the colombian authorities so we identify where the criminals are and take them to justice. But the other thing is that the regime has brutalized the people in a way that is only comparable with what we saw with milosevic more than 20 years ago. So, its a moral duty to denounce and to do whatever is needed so that the dictatorship comes to an end. This is not a geopolitical debate. This is not a dispute between world powers. This is common sense. This is the defense of the values and principles that we share and that have been the cornerstone of our society. So thats why we need to do everything that is needed. And i welcome that this morning after the evidence that was shared by many countries in the United Nations general assembly, a new Investigation Panel has been formed to not only investigate, but be very assertive in the announcements that can be put against maduro and his inner circle. But the effects of that brutal dictatorship that latin america has seen in his recent history. Weve seen brothers and sisters in colombia. Its generating a stress, but were doing what is right. We have been able to attend with health care, vaccination, and we even recognize the citizens of colombia more than 25,000 children that were about to lose their nationality, the right to their nationality. Can this be sustainable . Obviously no. Having 5,000 migrants in colombia per day, thats sustainable, but we know at that for now, we need to provide attention and we need to call other countries to support the attention of the migrants so thats why in the one hand we support the venezuelan people and on the other hand were working with the biggest coalition ever seen in the region against a dictatorship with a diplomatic blockade, with the lima group, with the sanctions introduced by the american treaty of reciprocal assistance. Now i can say something, what colombia achieved growing above 3 , having such an abundant flow of investments at times where we are facing such a migration challenge, it only demonstrates that the colombian economy and its people are very resilient. We know that we must follow all these tracks that i mentioned today. Legality, plus entrepreneurship equals fairness for closing the social gaps. So im very happy as president of colombia to be here, to be able to share with you some of the things that were putting together for the future of our country, and i want to thank many of you who have looked at colombia, worked with colombia so that we are the nation that we are today. Thank you so much. [applause] thank you. So, thank you for your remarks. When you were previously living in washington, you didnt have a motorcade. Is it easier getting around with a motorcade now . I used to use the metro, so i miss the metro. Okay. So, lets talk about venezuela. Is it your view that maduro is likely to survive and do you have any views whether military intervention by the u. S. Would be appropriate or desirable . The first thing, david, as i mentioned a while ago, the situation in venezuela is really the most worrisome crisis that weve seen in latin america in many years. The level of brutality, the level of brutality, the Human Rights Violations that are being performed on a permanent basis by the dictatorship, its only comparison to what we saw with milosevic in yugoslavia. So the moral duty is to get maduro out of power and make a call for free elections. Thats the first task. The second task is to deal with the migration crisis. We havent seen something of this magnitude, 4 Million People have left venezuela in the last three years. We have received 1. 4 Million People, which is equivalent of 3 of the colombian population in less than three years. So how can this come to an end . What is it that we can do . I value that this week in the United Nations general assembly, the reciprocal assistance called on new sanctions and stronger sanctions were put in place. So i hope that the solution is going to be triggered by this stronger diplomatic blockade and it is done in a peaceful way and what i mean peaceful is that it will be up to the Venezuelan Military and police to make the choice of their life. Do they want to be on the right side of history or do they want to continue brutelizing their country . I believe the first. Support for maduro is that coming from cuba and russia . Is that where you see the support . He has received support from cuban government for a long time. They try to play the same old same old game. They say that theyre in negotiation and every time they do that, how they plot, how do they affect the opposition, how do they demonize the people in the opposition and brutalize the people in the opposition. Thats why ive never trusted those instruments and think at that cuba, looking whats happening in venezuela should move out in not keeping the support they have for maduro. We, the countries that are signatories of the interamerican democratic charter, must also make a call to the cubans not to keep on interfering to support a brutal regime. As we compare that the evidence shows, that milosevic, and others in latin america, anyone who supports him. When you were at the u. N. Do you have a chance to see President Trump . We had an important meeting with President Trump and other states of latin america. What i liked about the meeting first of all, the coordination. That were not looking at venezuela, as i said, not as a geopolitical battle ground. Were all there because we share the values of democracy and liberty. And what i also value is that president s present the unity of a country even in heavy political debate. You look whats going on in the United States towards venezuela i see something very important in the case of colombia, bipartisan support for the transition and the end of dictatorship, bicameral support and i think we have to have it like that and having the conversation with President Trump and the other president s and the other ministers show me that were stronger than ever on the blockade, the diplomatic blockade and stronger than ever in terms of the right sanctions that we must put in place. So, i considered that the next steps that started happening today with the opening of this new Investigation Commission by the United Nations and the sanctions that were approved yesterday, make me be more optimistic on a daily basis. Now, negotiations with the eln have broken off. Do you assume, do you think they might come back or its not likely . David, let me try to be very blunt, okay . When i assumed office, i said i was going to make an evaluation of the 17 months that the Previous Administration had dialoged with els and you know what the evaluation showed me . Do you know how many terrorist attacks they performed during those conversations . More than 400. More than 100 people were killed and more than 10 people were kidnapped. Thats no peace willingness. So i said very clear, if you really want to talk peace, two conditions have to be met. The first one, the Immediate Release of all the kidnapped people. And the second that you put an end to all of your criminal activities. Why . Because if i gauge on any form of conversation, while they keep using violence, i will be legitimizing violence. So the first thing for them to acknowledge is that they are neither comparable with the government. I mean, they really want to talk peace, the most important thing is they recognize theyre on the wrong path and that they have to put an end to the criminal activity. Do you know what their response was . A bombing in january of this year in a police academy. They killed 22 cadets that were students, unarmed. And that for me just shows the brutality. There has been support by maduro and in their territory relates because some of the those in cuba that participated on the plotting, that also praised that they had participated in the plot of that terrorist act, should be sent to colombia on extradition and not being kept in cuba with support. So my conclusion about this is we really have to build peace, but peace has to be built with legality. If we legitimize any form of violence, we will be committing new forms of violence every day. Oil is important to your economy and in the United States we have developed new sources of oil in effect through using fracking. Is fracking something thats allowed in colombia and would that help your oil industry if its allowed . Thats a great question. Because the United States lets talk about what has happened in this country. The United States created a policy maybe 12 years ago so that nonconventional oil fields could come with acceleration and in fact, the United States has become not only selfsufficient in terms of reserves, but also has become the number one producer in the world thanks to that. And in combination with other sources of exploration and in the case of colombia, i always said as a candidate that we cannot allow practices that would harm the environment, that would have negative effect on biodiversity, that would produce a major damage to the eco system. So instead of going to the practices that we have have Previous Administrations, which was that the authorities were commercial exploitation was in place, we said, no, were going to put that on hold, but were going to call the environmentalists and were going to call the people that are experts from the industry and we will ask them to give us recommendations. And you know, they made a very important report. I think the report that said before we get into the debate whether nonconventionals are used or not, lets have some Research Pilots. So that out of the Research Pilots we can clearly know the impact and how to minimize it, how to manage it, and decide whether we really want to go that path or not. So i value that what we have done as of today is a good demonstration of soundness with the environment and also prudence in terms of the industry. In your country you have a oneterm limit on president ial service, is that right . You were elected when you were 43 so youll be in your 40s when you finish. So what are you going to do the rest of your life . [laughter] well, ill talk to you about that in 2022. For now, i really want to make a difference in my country and you know, im a very predictable president and my wife always tells me that and so, i am predictable because we have a Government Program and every day i try to accomplish the objectives that i have there. So i will work to achieve all the proposals that we have there and after 2022 ill call you so you can invite me again here and we can talk about what we accomplished. Is being president of colombia as much pleasure as you thought when you ran for it or is it more of a headache . No, i always had the belief that the possibility to work for your country is the greatest honor you can have. Ap being president of a country like colombia, thats a country full of history, great people, resilience of regions, it makes me proud every day and every day i just have the drive of trying to achieve as much as possible for the goodness of my people. All right, lets have some questions. Right here, stand up, identify yourself and just one, simple question. Colombia youre friends with phil mclane. Yes. Send him my best regards. Could you share your thoughts what colombia will be looking for in the next president . First of all, i feel very proud colombia has had a tremendous president alberto moreno, elected in 2005 and ending his term next year. So i think his profile, in my opinion, has been very good for the bank and for the region. Why . Because i think you have to combine many characteristics. I remember a great book written by a harvard professor, she said you have to meet the four cs if you want to be a good leader , that means coherence, con congruence, confidence and caring. I would put that as the characteristics, but we also need at ibd, somebody that has a Development Vision for the whole region. Its not about economics, just about economics, its also about the Regional Development goals. The Sustainable Development goals. Its about the environment. Its about the capacity to bring together the private sector, the public sector, the civil society. So i hope that those characteristics are met as a country that is going to share the assembly. We have to be, obviously, impartial, but i hope that the candidates that will be presented meet those characteristics. I think that luis alberto has showed that those characteristics allowed him to the banks, not only climate change, gender equality, water and at the same time to orient the bank in contribution to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, to the Creative Industries in many countries in latin america. Right here . Steven donahue. The marketing part is yours colombia assumes the rotating president this year. What are your plans or what will your agenda be to try to drive the other four countries or five countries to adopt similar policies to those that you have for the well, the whole thing is that this year, going to be the pro tem pro tem ry presidency and four things i like where the alliance is coming to. Having the ecuadorian inside the alliance is must. We had the great meeting in lima and were enthusiastic, ecuador becoming a member. And i see the president working hard to achieve that and i think that gives a very strong power to the alliance, specifically in south america. The second thing is, and i gave that opinion last year, that we have to think more fof as allies and not just as partners. If were going to engage in negotiations we have to think as a whole alliance and not just the pure interests of any specific country. And we had that debate, for example, with the because we were going to have the discussions with new zealand and so that new zealand can become another alliance with australia and the other countries. I made the case, a country like colombia is not willing to open the sector at this moment, represents 25 percent of our agricultural gdp and a lot of employment in the country and some like a contention wall on inequality in the rural areas. So its not just for the sake of protection, its for the sake, also, of national security, but about food security. So i value that my colleagues said, okay, we understand and we decided to go together as allies and understand if theres something that harms a country, we have to be able to coordinate better. So i just give you that particular example. And if we keep on working as allies, i think it will be much stronger. The third thing is how do we integrate the Capital Markets in a more organized and rapid way . We had the mila, created with a great vision, but we need to have more ipos. We need to move more investments, crossborder investment in the capital local market. We need to have Corporate Governance regulation in a better way so we put that into the agenda. We hope that during during the presidency we can accelerate this and thats one on my agenda and how do we not harm infrastructure, energy, water and ports. That, i think, is going to be the next stage of the alliance. How do we pass from trade to smart regulation and we can harmonize the regulation. Mexico is an oecb country and i think to achieve those objectives. Thank you so much. Your predecessor had an agreement with farc on balance. Are you supportive of that agreement and implementing it now as you intended to or not . David, as i said in my remarks, we are not playing politics with peace. I believe it was a mistake, a historical big mistake in colombia to divide the population between friends and enemies of peace for political purposes. So the first thing is that we in colombia have to work to build a peace policy. We call it peace with legality. And that means everything that can be made a success store on we have to follow it. Everything that can be a Success Story in terms of bringing the states to the places where there wasnt the right presence, we have to do it. But we have to be very clear that we have to correct the things that are not going well and by that, is that we have to punish those who want to go back to criminality. And by that is that we need to do something very fast to put an end to the illegal growth and i think we are a moving in the right direction and the third thing, we really have to be more effective on getting the victims repaired, the assets of those who said they were going to give their assets for reparation and its not working enough. So, my conclusion is, today colombia is assuming the challenge of peace with legality, but i think the message was the message we got from the eu, the message we got from the u. N. , the message we got from the United States, the message we got from the International Community is that were headed in the right direction and thats because they have put legality as the right element that needs to be combined with peace. Back there, just stand up and identify yourself, please, and just speak up. Were the Fastest Growing Defense Technology in the last 50 years. I wonder what you can tell me about how youre Encouraging Technology startups and entrepreneurship. I admire your focus on that and why a Technology Startup would come to colombia. Well, two very important policies. Ive been following a start up regulation for many years since i was working at idb and i think the two Major Concerns that entrepreneurs have is during the first years they always have to look for the three fs in terms of funding, a friend of mine who was an entrepreneur said the three fs were friends, food and family. And so, most of the entrepreneurs in latin america have to struggle without having access to finance when they have a good idea, when they want to start a company. So we have created an ecosystem that is called colombia entrepreneurship and were working with universities, accelerators, funds and mentors and we try to connect them all and were pulling out the resources toward the funding so we can get from Angel Investments to high private equity investments. Thats number one. Number two is, most of the startups suffer a lot during the first seven years of performance. Why . Because taxation becomes very heavy on them. So we launched a policy of zero, zero income tax for the first seven years in technology and the Creative Industries, based on the evidence of a minimum amount of investments and an minimum amount of jobs. With those two things, i think were giving the right message and something that impact me a lot is that we have the chambers of commerce and the first semester, they said weve got 9 increase of new companies being initiated in clamma in the first trimester of this year. 40 technology and Creative Industry so i think the message is getting there. But also on the rural areas. On the rural areas, we want to be more entrepreneurs. And people who are going to start and to fund the startup, focusing on the rural areas, will have zero income tax during the first ten years, asline with the minimum amount of investment and the minimum amount of jobs and were starting to see the startups in the precision of our culture and startups on alternative development. Startups on Environmental Services or the expanse of the agricultural border. So, i think were also getting with the right messages and last but not least, we show the first orange economy bond in the world. So we reached something close to 150 million and i thought it was going to be very difficult to place it in the market. In fact, in just six months, 3000 Companies Got the funding, longterm funding at a very comfortable rate and those things are coming with entrepreneurs. These bracelets that you have on yes, they have been with me, not these, but all of my life ive kept these. While you were in down you stopped at a bookstore and when you come to a bookstore in washington d. C. , you have a lot of security do people notice you or stand in line to buy the books. I lived here for 14 years and i used to go to cramer books and politics and prose. And i made myself in cramer yesterday, i bought a couple of good books, but i still miss the days where i could come to washington and have maybe a blue moon with hot wings, without having a big motorcade behind me. But its always great to be in town and this is a city that i love and being able to have a couple of minutes of cramer was very enjoyable for me. All right, weve reached our time. I went to thank you very much president , for your tomorrow today and thank you all for coming and i appreciate your willingness to be here and you are always welcome to come back. Thank you so much, david. [applause]
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