During the closing of version 56 of the Asobanking Convention, held in Cartagena, the President of the Republic criticized the banking sector, and blamed it for the appearance of the so-called ‘drop by drop’ the country. According to President Petro, illegal lenders have taken advantage of the inability of the financial sector to reach the popular and peasant economy.
“Until now and this not in general form, the financial world barely touches those worlds of the peasant sector and the popular economy sector, which have been touched by the ‘drop by drop’ and its similar, which are the ones that have financed 20% daily interest rates (…) what productive business activities can be generated in Colombia if this daily rate is used, that in the end they are a mafia laundromat Petro said.
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However, the president made a call for dialogue with the financial sector so that it becomes a lung for the generation of wealth in the country.
“…if we accept that a good part of the credit goes to productionthen one aspect of that credit must go to the new empowered producers, who would be in that peasant economy, from the small and medium agricultural entrepreneur, in the agricultural cooperatives, in cooperative processes of agro-industrialization”, said the president.
And he added that “All this has to be implemented because if not, the peasant economy simply remains in the gross agricultural product and is unable to transform itthere must be some type of economy of scale that requires associativity, if that is not financed, neither can the peasant economy emerge. It is in the elaborated product that the wealth is generated”.
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Lastly, and in an aside from his speech, the president of the Colombians opened a debate with the banking sector regarding the proposals for financing and decarbonising production.
“These are the issues of a possible social pact because it is about millions of people being able to produce in the countryside and in the city. How millions of people can produce by promoting the popular economy, which was previously called the informal economy. Strengthening it is generating wealth”, he pointed out.
