While here in London, we morbidly await brexit, president Juan Manuel Santos showed the world how a responsible executive can bring peace and prosperity. Instead of stepping down after his failed referendum for a peace treaty with the FARC rebels, ending a decades long insurgency, he used the referendum results as a bargaining chip to win more favourable terms from the FARC, and finally signing the peace treaty.
He’s shown himself to be a bold leader, unafraid to act against a referendum.
On November 2nd, he spoke at the LSE and elegantly outlined his vision and goals for Colombia, visions and goals he is methodically bringing to light with responsible political and economic policies.
“Growth is not enough if it doesn’t have a social dimension- happily we have been accomplishing both.”
The president’s poverty reduction program is heavily influenced by the theories of the development economist Amartya Sen. Sen developed a multidimensional human poverty index which the santos administration is using as a to-do list. To meet these goals, Santos explained that besides peace, Colombia needs consensus between state, private sector, and rest of society.
The specific projects working towards those goals are a comprehensive tax reform, cutting unnecessary public spending, and programs tasked with economic diversification.
Whilst Europe and the US slide into the tempting arms of populism, Colombia is on a steady path to prosperity.
Antone Christianson-Galina
business news + lse + emerging markets 