The candidate for president for the Team for Colombia coalition, Federico Gutiérrez, continues his campaign in several municipalities in the country. His last stops were the city of Cartagena and the departments of Santander and Boyacá.
On Friday, April 22, after leaving the event organized by the Colombian Association of Pension and Unemployment Fund Administrators (Asofondos), Fico visited the popular sector of Bazurto, known for being an impoverished area with critical social problems, as well as being the largest supplier of groceries in La Heroica.
On that tour, the candidate was treated to a glass of salmon and spoke with the local fish vendors. Afterwards, he met a cassava seller who told him that he had not sold anything, and that if he did not do so his family would not eat that day. The candidate decided to buy him a hand of cassava, which at the moment costs ten thousand pesos in Cartagena.
On the afternoon of the same Friday, Federico Gutiérrez traveled to the department of Santander. From Girón, a municipality next to the capital, Bucaramanga, the presidential candidate said he will seek to strengthen tourism, industry, infrastructure and security in that department.
In addition, because it is Earth Day, the right-wing candidate assured that his government will defend the integrity of the Santurbán moor, an ecosystem that produces drinking water that has been constantly threatened by mining exploration projects. He also noted that he plans to invest a billion pesos in the restoration of threatened ecosystems.
This Saturday, the candidate traveled to the department of Boyacá. He made two stops in the municipalities of Chiquinquirá and Tunja, the capital. There he alluded to the problems of road and aqueduct connectivity in the region, as well as its peasant potential. “I come from the region and I know the importance that regions represent in the country. No more centralism, it's time for the regions and that's why Boyacá is essential,” he said.
In addition, he made a stop at the Basilica Marian National Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary in Chiquinquirá. The candidate, who professes the Catholic faith, attended a eucharist with a ruana marked with his roquet.
Federico Gutiérrez was one of the guests at the Asofondos congress, along with Enrique Gómez and Sergio Fajardo. He assured that the main problem of the pension system is not the pension itself, but informality in two respects: “labor informality, which is around 60%, but also the informality that exists in so many companies that cannot be incorporated”. In general terms, he rounded up the pension problem to a national economy issue.
To solve the problem of unincorporated companies, Gutiérrez proposed a program called My Company in One Day, which would reduce the requirements and time needed to set up a legal company. “Successful consolidation of a company today requires thirteen steps that take a few months. Go down from thirteen procedures to five procedures, which can be generated through a single platform, that can be formalized and that guarantees can be generated to form more employment,” said the candidate.
With regard to the pension system, he assured that it will maintain the mixed format that exists today, adding that the pension scheme must guarantee “coverage, equity and sustainability.” He also suggested increasing the amount of subsidies for seniors who remained outside the pension system, for which he proposed reducing subsidies that go to high pensions and raising the allowance for Colombia Mayor, which today stands at 80,000 pesos.
“Here we must ensure, above all, a reform in which we can have protection for old age and that these subsidies go precisely to the poorest. In the way that we can make a gradual transformation of that system, we will reach coverage, ending the four-year period, to three million older adults who may have a subsidy base of 330 thousand pesos per month,” said the candidate.
He also suggested that it would reduce contribution periods from 25 to 22 years. However, he noted that there will be no change in the rights of people who are already earning pensions and who are in their last ten years of contributions. The changes would be effective with the pensions of other citizens, with the purpose of “guaranteeing that pension also to young people who come behind”.
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