Posted on 06/19/2002 10:26:26 PM PDT by HAL9000
Bogota, Jun 19, 2002 (EFE via COMTEX) -- Colombian President Andres Pastrana has invited the man elected to succeed him, Alvaro Uribe, to participate in an economic forum in Cartagena that former U.S. President Bill Clinton is also scheduled to attend, officials here said Wednesday.The invitation to Uribe was made public by the president's press secretary.
The forum will take place June 28-29 in the Caribbean resort city and aims to bring together leaders of Colombia's private sector and a number of distinguished invitees from abroad.
"The role of the private sector in a nation in crisis" is the theme of the forum, which government spokesmen say will examine the role of business leaders "within a reality like Colombia's" and in the context of a globalized economy.
The meeting was Pastrana's idea, and he invited Clinton to attend during a visit to Washington April 17.
Grabbing 53 percent of ther vote in a crowded field, Uribe won the presidency in the first round of voting on May 26 and is scheduled take office Aug. 7, when Pastrana will end his four-year term of office.
The president-elect is a 49-year-old attorney who broke away from the opposition Liberal party and ran as an independent on a platform of escalating the war against leftist rebels.
Copyright (c) 2002. Agencia EFE S.A.
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