www.paisesbajos.embajada.gov.co

President Santos stressed that investments like this one fit perfectly into the vision of achieving a country with peace, equity and education. He thanked Unilever for its confidence in Colombia. "A trust that was started 66 years ago and fortunately has been reiterated and now has grown," he said.

On 26 August, the third Unilever plant was inaugurated by the Colombian President,

Juan Manuel Santos, and Paul Polman, CEO of the Anglo-Dutch multinational, in Valle del Cauca. This new plant, which is the first one that Unilever has launched in Latin America in the last 15 years, will handle the entire productive process for washing powders, and will supply the region (Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Central America), which will lead to the creation of 150 direct jobs and 500 indirect jobs.

Likewise, the new plant strengthens Unilever’s participation in the market with technological innovation, for being sustainable and with a green design, by means of the reduction of resources such as water, energy, waste and CO emissions.

The multinational washing powder plant required an investment of $80 million USD, and will have a production capacity of 100.000 tons and will be friendly with the environment since it will use the most modern technologies.

http://www.portafolio.co/negocios/u-nilever-planta-palmira-fab

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CONVOCATORIAPrograma de exportaciónColombiamoda 2014

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“level in the various port, transport and logistics organizations.

The program offered by the STC/Group took place during a 4 month period, distributed between the island of Aruba and the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It consisted of 4 modules, divided in: logistics and planning; economy; protection and port security and management and communications.

On 18 August, a delegation of the Embassy of Colombia held a meeting with five

Colombian students from the Port of Cartagena and the Container Terminal. During the lunch that took place before the graduation of the Colombian students, they shared all the different benefits obtai-ned during this time.

The most relevant point was having had the possibility to exchange professional practices with industry experts from other countries such as Chile, Indonesia and Peru, as well as the opportunity to increase their knowledge in the operation and management of ports and container terminals, in order to achieve the capacity to act at a management

www.cbi.eu/garmentscolombia

The 4 year export programmes of CBI are run by experienced sector and marketing experts, designed to contribute significantly to the company’s export potential. These programmes include on-site export evaluations, readiness assessments and consultancy, tailored training courses for the company, market entry and matchmaking services aimed at connecting the company with European buyers.

There are 3 phases tailored to the company’s needs. Each one is focused on a particular activity with the ultimate goal of preparing the company for its entrance to the European market. The first phase consists of a business audit and the development of an action plan. The second chapter involves creating the export capacity in order to meet European market demands and explore them to create an export strategy. Finally, the third one is the market entry, aimed at gaining experience in European markets as well as a sufficient number of business contacts, and participating in trade fairs, conferences, road shows, and events.

culture, religion, philosophy, science and economy.

In its edition of 2 August, within the economic growth section, it published the article “COLOMBIA IS BOOMING”.

In the cited article, the newspaper highlights the position of Colombia as the second economy in South America, after Brazil, the regional giant, as well as the phenomenon presented during the last ten years regarding the reduction of unemployment and the growth of the middle class.

At the beginning of the year, the Embassy of Colombia in the Netherlands held its annual

meeting with Erik Plaisier and Nico Smid, Program Managers of the CBI – Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries, an entity affiliated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the 6 open calls for Colombian companies, in association with Proexport and the economic associations of the country that support the different economic sectors.

This cycle ended with the open call for the clothing sector, which covers underwear, swimwear, sportswear and shapewear, which included: natural ingredients for the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries; processed specialty coffees; exotic fresh fruits; exotic flowers and IT outsourcing.

The open call represents the opportunity to receive US$ 100,000 that will be invested in the company in the form of training, coaching and matchmaking.

TROUW is one of the most important nationwide daily newspapers in the

Netherlands. It is among the principal publications of this country because of its insightful articles about local and international news regarding politics, cultu-

http://www.handelsbevordering.nl

• http://www.proexport.com.co/turismo/in-teligencia-mercados-turismo

http://www.colombia.travel/realismomagico/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhc9SjBw1fs

where one can find data about tendencies regarding the tourism sector, promising markets, segments of interest, information on marketing channels and the tourist preferences of the European community. Thanks to the partnership between Proexport and CBI, various tools for the Colombian tourism entrepreneurs are available on the CBI platform. Colombian companies can use these data to support their market research and get useful and detailed information.

Aeroesfera, Diego, José, Juanita, Santiago are the names of our Colombians who integrated

the interdisciplinary team with SYOU, a Dutch company, co-designed a collection of trainers inspired in our country, which was launched at the Colombia-Moda Fair 2014.

Each pair of trainers is made locally: with materials

The CBI -Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries- is an

entity affiliated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, which offers its assistance to the exporters from developing countries and helps them strengthen their competitive position in the European market.

In the tourism sector, CBI supports the tourist information offices, tour operators, travel agencies, hotel chains, transportation companies and tourist offices, among others.

The CBI Market Intelligence platform provides updated information on the outgoing tourism market in over 20 countries of the European Union. This is

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Lastly, they emphasize that the Dutch entrepreneurs are well aware of the boom in Colombia, which is the reason why they decided to establish the “Holland House” in Bogotá, It is a private-public initiative which works as a Chamber of Commerce and is becoming the support for entrepreneurs that still don’t have offices in our country.

Embassy of Colombia to the Kingdom of the Netherlands

http://www.elcolombiano.com/colombiamo-da-2014.asp

Cities such as Bucaramanga, Cali and Medellin were very important epicenters in the design and confection of these trainers. It also had the support from "Marca Pais", "Viva Colombia" and "Inexmoda".

of the region and made in collaboration with local talents, from editors to visual artists, which tell the history of our country.

For this project, the SYOU entreprenuers made a national call and 8,000 people applied. Finally 5 persons were selected, however the co-creation work has involved a lot more artists in the task.

This collection helps to promote the good perception of Colombia in the world because it talks about the high quality of our products, the qualified workmans-hip and the inventiveness in our country.

http://www.artesaniasdecolombia.com.co/PortalAC/C_ferias/-diez-pasos-para-participar-en-la-primera-bienal-de-diseno-para-la-artesania_4684

http://www.agrofuturocolombia.com/

I was born in Bucaramanga on 1975 . I did my Bachelor’s in Medicine at Javeriana University in Bogota, a Master’s in Clinical Epidemiology, a PhD and a Postdoctorade in Public Health at Erasmus University of Rotterdam. In England, I used to work at Unilever and later as a Public Health Professor in Cambridge University. I have been living in the Netherlands for 2 years and currently I am a lecturer in preventive medicine at Erasmus University.

In my job I manage two research groups, each composed by 30 people who do scientific research and academic activities for undergraduate and graduate students of the medical faculty. In one of these groups we investigate how to prevent heart diseases, the principal cause of worldwide mortality as well as one of the main reasons of morbidity and mortality in Colombia. In the second group, we focus on understanding how to age in a healthy way throughout the course of life.

Aging is not only limited to elders: we start to age as soon as we start to exist, and the decisions we make every day determine how our near and distant future will be like. In this group we try to discover how a way of life (healthy diet, exercise, sleeping patterns) contributes in a healthy aging. Both research areas are of great importance for Colombian people because our country is also experiencing an epidemy of

cardiovascular diseases, and the population is progressively aging without following, most of the times, good lifestyle patterns. This also generates unintended consequences for the health and quality of life during adulthood and the last decades of it.

Besides the two research programs, I have also led initiatives of the Erasmus University on establishing links with Latin America. In Colombia, we have established official and close relations with over 10 universities of different cities, which have originated fruitful programs of scientific and academic personnel exchange as well as to establish joint activities between Colombia and the Netherlands.

All these research activities and academic training are still in process to be consolidated. Hopefully, in the next years, it could further strengthen the academic and scientific bonds between Colombia and the Netherlands with higher scientific and health improvements in our country.

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