Colombian President Gustavo Petro proposed this Monday the creation of a special integration zone between Norte de Santander and Táchira so that the reestablishment of the border between these territories represents progress for the border population.
(Read: Medical supplies, the first thing to happen after the border reopening).
“We need your steel, your aluminum (from Venezuela). Necessarily the two economies have to integrate, we are talking about a special area between Táchira and Norte de Santander to be a platform for industrialization, so that the quality of life is general, otherwise it would not be very funny (…) The grace of trade is that it brings progress to the population”, said the head of state, who added that he will be “monitoring that”.
The president also hopes that in the medium term bilateral trade between the two nations reaches US$8 billionas expected between 2007 and 2008.
(Also: These are the Invima protocols for trade with Venezuela).
Border with Venezuela
Courtesy Ministry of Commerce
“I hope that the first people to benefit are those who live on both sides of the border, those who used the trails (…) depending on officials who collected tolls, criminal gangs (…) Today there is an automatic recovery for passers-by“, said.
Likewise, the Colombian president referred to the fact that the globalization of the country, started by its neighbors in Venezuela, Brazil and Ecuador, therefore, a greater integration of Latin America must be committed. He recalled that Caracas and Santiago de Chile have requested his return to the Andean Community of Nations, something that, together with the rapprochement with Argentina, would strengthen the region.
(Read: ‘We are going to tear the border from gangsters’, Benedetti for reopening).
“If we took that step, I believe that Colombia would be building its most important platform for economic progress after its own internal market (…) Hopefully a trucker can get to Georgetown (Guyana) on one side, to Brazil on the other and on the other another to Patagonia. If a trucker does it, a trucker can do it for any family or any person on a motorcycle, recognizing that this is our home (Latin America),” Petro said.
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