Colombia oil, mining industries push for leaner regulations

[Judi Lynn]

Colombia oil, mining industries push for leaner regulations
By Peter Murphy and Nelson Bocanegra

BOGOTA Wed May 21, 2014 10:13am EDT

(Reuters) - Colombia's oil and mining industries, hit by lower output and growing resistance to some key projects, are pleading for help from the next government to streamline slow and erratic regulations.

The country's commodities sector, once a darling of foreign investors, has lost its luster in recent years as shifting environmental rules, delays in obtaining permits and local community resistance leave many projects stuck on paper.

The winner of Colombia's presidential election on Sunday - or a run-off vote next month - will face slowing growth in oil output and stalled mining projects just as peace talks with Marxist rebels open the possibility of tapping crude and gold whose extraction has been hampered by war.

A peace deal with FARC rebels could boost annual economic growth by 1 to 2 percent, the government says. It also would bolster investor certainty in oil and mining, with much of the country's mineral wealth in areas where conflict persists.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/21/us-colombia-election-economy-idUSBREA4K0M320140521?rpc=401

[Louisiana1976]

1. Hope Santos wins--he's the candidate who supports the peace with FARC

that will bring about economic growth.

[Judi Lynn]

2. He's far better for the normal people of Colombia, as well.

Uribe would be as happy as a clam living with war perpetually, having death squads trap and murder all his political enemies, and then dressing them in FARC uniforms and count them as enemies fallen in battle before burying them, and letting individual powerless soldiers take the punishment when and if the discoveries are made that the dead people are actually civilians.