(May 8, 2017) The University of Padua, in the context of its relations with the Italian Latin American International Organization (IILA), Promex, Embassy of Colombia in Italy and private companies, is part of the peace process currently taking place in Colombia. A Colombian delegation It has come to Padua for a two-day meeting. The delegation comes from one of the areas most affected by the civil war that has battered the Latin American country in the last fifty years: the province of Cartama, southwest of Antioquia region (capital Medellin), which had almost 22,000 victims since 1985, according to the Mayor of Támesis, Alexander Zuluaga, head of the delegation. Just in these lands since the 1990s, the Colombian government confiscated to Medellín's cartel - dominated by Pablo Escobar, a narcotrafficant nowadays protagonist of a well-known television series - large plots of farmland suitable for any type of fruit and vegetable production. According to Dario Garbarino, an Italian-Colombian entrepreneur who promoted the mission, in the confiscated lands “there is even the intact estate where the leader of the cartels gathered, with holes in the cavities to hide the cash. Today it would be perfect for a low-impact resort". Real estate and land of Cartama have been returned by the Colombian government to the Municipalities of the province two years ago and is in these places that is taking shape the project of the integrated technology agro-industrial, tourism and training pole, called BioSuroeste, at the center of a seminar organized in Padua by the Center for Regional Studies "Giorgio Lago", directed by prof. Patrizia Messina. At yesterday's meeting in Padua entitled "SMEs & territories. Focus on Colombia" was attended by Rosario Rizzuto, Dean of the University of Padua, Juan Mesa Zuleta, Ambassador of Colombia in Italy and President of the Italian Latin American Institute (IILA), Fernando Zilio, President of Chamber of Commerce Industry and Crafts of Padua, Alexander Zuluaga, President of the Province of Cartama, José Luis Rhi-Sausi, IILA, Patrizia Messina and Giovanni Luigi Fontana, University of Padua. (PO / RED)

ABOUT / COOPERATION

The main objective is to make Cartama a Park of Science, Technology and Innovation for the Agro-Food Industry, Renewable Energy, Tourism and Culture which, in the context of the Peace Process in place in the country, puts training and high-impact socio-territorial research at its center. The Peace treaty, which has granted the

Nobel Prize to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, allows to consolidate the virtuous process of economic development in place and opens new scenarios for international cooperation in which Italy can play a leading role. This role can be achieved not only by the business but as demonstrated by the seminar "SMEs and Territories", by a strong link between the economic world, the world of education and research, and the institutional world.