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17 - 23 September
2016
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From
the CEO OF EMIS
Last week I had the great pleasure of visiting Bogota where EMIS has an accomplished team and a large and loyal base of customers. Colombians will go to the polls next Sunday to vote on whether or not to ratify the peace agreement between the government and the rebel FARC movement. The general consensus from those I spoke to was that the vote will go in favour of the agreement. This really would be a momentous event in Colombia’s recent history and will mark the end of one of the world’s longest-running conflicts.
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The war has long been factored in to Colombia’s economic performance and, as the security situation has improved over recent years, the country has already benefited from increased tourism and foreign investment. So no one is expecting an instant economic boost from ratification but there is a lot of optimism that it will lay the foundations for stronger medium and long-term prosperity.
Economics aside, Colombia will have much to deal with once peace is finally achieved. According to the UN, there are more than seven million displaced people as a result of the conflict – more than in Syria or Iraq. The government will need to help many of them to return to their old way of life in rural areas and to better assimilate others who want to remain in the cities where they sought safety. There is also the small matter of absorbing thousands of guerrilla fighters into mainstream life again.
The scars of the conflict clearly run deep and criminal acts will be hard to forgive but I sensed a strong conviction from those I met that this is an unmissable opportunity for the country to move ahead with a clean slate.
Guy Dunn
Chief Executive Officer.
P.S. Here are some articles on the Colombian peace agreement from the EMIS platform in the past week.
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Infographic
of the week
With the news that both the US and China have ratified the Paris Agreement, new hopes of the emissions-cutting treaty being brought into effect before the end of the year have been raised. As producers of close to 38% of the world's carbon emissions they were key to the agreement becoming a reality.
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Weekly
News summary
Below
are the most read articles in the past week on EMIS
Perspectives, our daily blog of
emerging market news and insights.
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