A few of months ago in Bogotá, the Leaders and Entrepreneurs in the U Forum (Foro de Líderes y Emprendedores en la U), a major event organized by the Colombian magazine Semana (the most prestigious and most read in the country), where, for 3 days, innovation, creativity and new generation entrepreneurship, as well as the current status of these issues in Colombia were spoken about. Hundreds of undergraduate and postgraduate students noted for his or her leadership, entrepreneurship and academic excellence, met with the most influential figures in national politics, business leaders, journalists, teachers and enterprising citizens to speak proudly of their successful ideas. Among the most distinguished panelists, was Pedro Moneo, founder of Opinno and Editor of the magazine MIT Technology Review for Brazil and Latin America. I, one other Colombian, who attended as a reporter from his panel, left the conference absolutely thrilled and proud of my country after a Spanish man showed with figures and personal stories the love and confidence my country and its people have.
Despite all of the difficulties in the framework for peaceful processes with the continent's oldest guerrilla group, keeping 45 million people on edge, Colombia is experiencing a good time with hope for a better future. Moneo defines this as an ideal period in which the converging economic, technological and social factors that are done here and now, can allow things that have never been done before to happen.
Colombia, a nation with a robust economy, a financial sector that continues to grow and profit despite the global economic downturn (GDP 4.0% in 2012, higher than the average for Latin America); an ideal climate to do business by encouraging investors with tax benefits (according to investor protection index Doing Business 2014, we are the country with greatest strength in terms of investor protection in the region). Here, there is exponential growth in exports and rapid growth in imports. Over $15 billion (the highest record in the history of Colombia ) FDI (2012) and skilled labor (we are one of the countries with the highest annual increase in human resources availability according to the Growth Index Workforce IMD 2012) are factors that make today’s world see us with a fresh pair of eyes. (More information at http://goo.gl/NYpSTh)
While speaking at the forum, Moneo surprised the audience with data that left many with their mouths wide open. We are part of a revolutionary continent that is young and native to the internet. In Colombia, about 50% of the population is under 25, the same age as the network. A figure that is in today we are the country most active in Google, and our capital, Bogotá, is the fourth largest city in the world of Twitter and we have a government that invests in programs that will move towards 2014, providing internet access to 96% of the municipalities in our territory. It is based on the Vive Digital plan, a commitment by the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications, seeking to expand internet use in the country as the focus of development. Today, after 3 years of being released, it has managed to connect to more than 7 million Colombians to the network, delivered 355,000 computers and 82,000 tablets to schools across the country in 2013, is connected to 43% of small and medium internet companies and has a budget of $ 18 million, which will fund ICT studies for disadvantaged people. (Source: www.mintic.gov.co)
But it must be said that life here is not easy for many. Difficulties and lack of opportunities is a situation that has caused us develop skills to find daily sustenance. The crisis over the high cost of food, difficulties finding work, the difficult access to decent housing, etc. leads us to be resourceful...very resourceful! We find opportunities where others cannot see them. We adapt to our environment and assign new meanings, generating very creative ideas. For example, a Colombian converting a simple bicycle into a grill to sell arepas (foundation of the Colombian diet) in the streets feeds dozens of hungry pedestrians leaving their homes for work without having breakfast. Another Colombian converted the back of a donkey into a library, carrying books to the most remote corners of the country (Biblioburro Project), creating a high-impact social change through reading. Another new job was invented: selling minutes! The "minute man", a traveling phone booth that walks through the crowded city streets with two phones in hand wearing a colorful vest, shouts from the rooftops, "Minutes, minutes, minutes for $200 pesos!" This creates another way to survive the reality around us.
These are just some examples of how a necessity becomes opportunity, based on ingenuity. There are millions of stories like these, but for us as Colombians, they go unnoticed because nothing surprises us, since we know anything can happen to us. Sad to say, it had to be a Spanish man who came from the other side of the world, to remind me of the good time that my country is experiencing , the opportunities that are being developed and how creative and talented our people are; those born and raised in Colombia , the country where the need fosters creativity.
