Key Benefits:
ACT 631 OF 2000
(December 27)
Official Journal No 44.272 of 27 December 2000
PUBLIC POWER LEGISLATIVE BRANCH
By means of which the "Agreement of Technical, Scientific and Technological Cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Colombia and the Government of the Republic of Bolivia" is approved, made in the city of Santa Fe de Bogota, D. C., 10) days of the month of November of a thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight (1998).
COLOMBIA CONGRESS
Having regard to the text of the Agreement on Technical, Scientific and Technological Cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Colombia and the Government of the Republic of Bolivia, made in the city of Santa Fe de Bogota, D. C., at 10 (10) days of the month of November of a thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight (1998).
(To be transcribed: photocopy of the full text of the International Instrument mentioned).
Technical, Scientific and Technological Cooperation Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Colombia and the Government of the Republic of Bolivia.
The Government of the Republic of Colombia and the Government of the Republic of Bolivia, hereinafter referred to as the Parties;
Encouraged by the desire to strengthen the bonds of friendship and cooperation in both countries, and convinced of the many benefits derived from a mutual collaboration.
Recognizing the importance that technical, scientific and technological cooperation represents for the intensification of actions in the economic and social order in both nations.
Highlighting the need to promote, concretize and modernize the technical, scientific and technological infrastructure of the countries.
You have agreed to the following:
1. Both parties are obliged, within the limits of their powers, to give new impetus to their cooperation actions, on the basis of the principles of mutual benefit, reciprocity, respect for sovereignty and non-intervention in internal affairs. In order to achieve this fundamental objective, the Parties are determined to promote the development of their technical, scientific and technological cooperation, in order to promote the development of both nations.
2. All programmes, specific projects and scientific, technical and technological cooperation activities agreed by the Parties shall be implemented in accordance with the general provisions of this Agreement and the rules laid down in each country.
ARTICLE 2o. RESPONSIBLE ENTITIES.
1. As implementing entities for the fulfilment of the terms of this agreement:
-The Colombian Party appoints the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Colombian Agency for International Cooperation.
-The Bolivian Party appoints the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cult represented by the Vice-Ministry of Foreign Policy and the Ministry of Finance, represented by the Vice-Ministry of Public Investment and External Financing.
2. The implementation of the programmes defined in the framework of this agreement shall be carried out under the shared cost mode. The Parties may request, by common agreement, the participation of third countries and/or international bodies both for financing and for the implementation of programmes and projects arising out of the cooperation arrangements referred to in this Agreement. itself.
ARTICLE 3o. AREAS OF COOPERATION. The parties establish the following areas of cooperation, without prejudice to extending them by common agreement in the future:
Agricultural, and Agroindustry, Trade, and Investments, Science and Technology, Industrial and Agricultural Competitiveness, Social Projects, Social Development (education, children, ethnicities, etc.), Education and Training of Human Resources, Environment, Alternative Development, Health, Social Welfare, Tourism, Women and Gender, Capitalization of State-owned Enterprises, People's Participation and Mining.
ARTICLE 4. MODALITIES OF COOPERATION. In order to meet the objectives of technical, scientific and technological cooperation, the Parties within the framework of their internal legislation will undertake efforts to develop the following modalities of cooperation:
-Training and training of specialists.
-Provision of technical assistance developed in other ways, through the sending of experts and the joint realization of studies and projects of common interest.
-Creating information networks and data banks.
-Use of facilities, centres and institutions, materials and equipment necessary for the implementation of the programmes and projects that are necessary for the implementation of the common activities.
-Organization of conferences, seminars and exploration missions and other joint mechanisms of academic and scientific exchange.
-Exchange of technical, scientific and technological information and relevant statistics;
-Exchange of technologies for the development of joint cooperation projects and programmes.
-Promotion of cooperation between scientific and technical institutions, academics and the productive sector of both countries.
-Promoting the creation of small and medium-sized enterprises, the exchange and cooperation between entrepreneurs, and the formation of joint ventures.
-Any other cooperative activity that is agreed between the Parties.
ARTICLE 5o. AGREEMENT SCOPE, OPERATION AND INSTRUMENTATION.
1. The Parties shall establish a Joint Commission for Technical, Scientific and Technological Cooperation (hereinafter the Joint Committee), which shall be composed of the entities responsible referred to in Article 2or other representatives and experts that such institutions consider necessary.
2. The specific projects will be identified and prepared in accordance with the procedures established in each country and will be presented in the Framework of the Joint Cooperation Committee.
3. The Joint Committee shall fulfil the following tasks:
-To analyze and determine the priority fields, in which specific technical, scientific and technological cooperation programs and projects can be carried out.
-Propose and coordinate the activities, projects and concrete actions in relation to the objectives of this agreement, and define the means necessary for its implementation and evaluation.
-Identify new sectors and areas of cooperation.
-Understand the proper development of the Agreement.
-Find appropriate means to prevent difficulties that may arise in the fields covered by this Agreement;
-Follow, monitor and evaluate activities and make recommendations and modifications necessary to ensure compliance with the proposed objectives.
-Encourage the implementation of the results achieved in the course of cooperation.
-Report to the Parties on the recommendations for the expansion of exchanges and the diversification of cooperation;
-Define a biennial work programme that includes specific projects, implementing agents and sources of funding.
4. In order to review bilateral cooperation and to prepare the Joint Committees, follow-up and evaluation meetings will be held annually. These meetings will be review and evaluation exercises, which will be held in the Republic of Colombia and the Republic of Bolivia, separately. The Monitoring and Evaluation Meetings will be attended by:
-The representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Colombian Agency for International Cooperation, and the Colombian technical institutions and representatives of the Embassy of the Republic of Bolivia in Santa Fe de Bogota, a part.
-The representatives of the Vice-Ministry of Foreign Policy and the Vice-Ministry of Public Investment and External Financing of Bolivia, of the Bolivian and Colombian technical institutions and of the representatives of the Embassy of the Republic from Colombia in La Paz, from another.
-The results of these Evaluation and Follow-up Meetings will be exchanged, through diplomatic channels, and will be an instrument of coordination for the preparation of the Joint Committees.
5. The Joint Committee will meet in the Republic of Colombia and Bolivia every two years. At the request of one of the Parties, the meeting may also be convened by common agreement on a different date.
ARTICLE 6o. INSTRUMENTS AND MEANS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COOPERATION.
1. In order to facilitate the achievement of the objectives of the cooperation provided for in this Agreement, each Party shall, in accordance with its laws and regulations, provide the following facilities:
-The submission of experts, such as instructors, advisors, experts, specialists, scientific and technical staff, project assistants, the set of staff sent by the parties, hereinafter referred to as "experts sent".
-The supply of material and equipment hereafter referred to as "material".
-Eximibe the material provided for the projects of licenses, port fees, all kinds of customs duties and imports and other taxes and public charges.
-Eximitates the material provided for the Consolidated Customs Tariff (GAC) projects, excise duty (ICE) and Value Added Tax (VAT), up to the limit set by the same agreement.
2. Experts for the best performance of their duties shall be given the following prerogatives:
-Grant the necessary facilities for experts and their families to obtain the corresponding visas, free of rights and guarantees, to enable them to exercise their functions.
-Experts whose mission is more than one year, will be able to introduce the country, free of all kinds of customs duties, taxes and other related charges, their personal effects, household and furniture, for one time during their mission, inside of 180 days after arrival, up to the limit of US$ 15,000. (fifteen thousand US dollars).
-The activities that the citizens of one of the Parties in the territory of the other Party exercise in the development of this Agreement shall be subject to the provisions of this instrument and shall not be able to overwhelm the framework agreed between the Parties, either in the general terms, either for each specific case.
ARTICLE 7o. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. The parties shall ensure the adequate and effective protection of the intellectual property generated or applied in the development of the cooperation activities stipulated in this Agreement, in accordance with their laws and the applicable international conventions.
The meaning of the term "intellectual property" shall be understood in the terms in which it is presented by Article 2o of the Convention establishing the World Intellectual Property Body (WIPO), which was signed in Stockholm on 14 July. July 1967.
Information obtained during the execution of this Agreement, which is under the protection of intellectual property, may not be transferred to third parties without the prior consent of the other Party.
The right of intellectual property arising from bilateral programmes and projects, or other cooperation programmes implemented within the framework of this Agreement, shall be exercised jointly by the competent institutions. The registration, economic exploitation and exploitation of these rights will be regulated in special agreements, if applicable, in any program or project.
ARTICLE 8o. SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES. Any discrepancies which may arise from the interpretation or application of this Convention shall be resolved by the Parties by means of any means of peaceful settlement of disputes referred to in the Convention. international law.
ARTICLE 9o. ENTRY INTO FORCE AND DURATION.
1. The Contracting Parties shall communicate by diplomatic means the fulfilment of the internal legal requirements necessary to improve this Agreement, which shall enter into force on the sixtieth day after the date of the second notification.
2. This Convention may be amended or extended by mutual written agreement of the Contracting Parties; the agreed amendments or extensions shall enter into force once the same formalities as are provided for the entry into force of the instrument are fulfilled. to say, compliance with the internal constitutional and legal requirements.
3. The entry into force of this Agreement is replaced by the Basic Agreement on Scientific and Technical Cooperation signed in La Paz, between the Government of Colombia and the Government of the Republic of Bolivia, on 24 June 1972.
4. This Agreement shall be for a period of five (5) years, and shall be automatically renewed for equal periods, unless one of the Parties notifies the other, in writing and by diplomatic means, six months in advance of its wish to give The Agreement is terminated.
5. This Agreement may be denounced by any of the Parties, by means of a diplomatic written notification, which shall take effect six months after the other Party has received it.
6. In the event of termination or withdrawal of this Agreement, the implementing programmes and projects shall not be affected and shall continue until their conclusion.
ARTICLE 10. EVOLUTIONARY. With regard to the implementation of this Agreement, each Party may make proposals aimed at extending the scope of bilateral cooperation, taking into account the experience gained during its implementation. execution.
Made in the city of Santa Fe de Bogota, D. C., at ten (10) days of the month of November of a thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight (1998), in two copies, in Spanish, being the two texts equally authentic.
By the Government of the Republic of Colombia,
GUILLERMO FERNANDEZ DE SOTO
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia
By the Government of the Republic of Bolivia,
GUIDO RIVEROS FRANK
Ambassador
The undersigned Head of the Legal Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
NOTES:
That the present is faithful photocopy taken from the original text of the Agreement on Technical, Scientific and Technological Cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Colombia and the Government of the Republic of Bolivia, made in the city of Santa Fe de Bogota,
D. C., at ten (10) days of the month of November of a thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight (1998), a document that rests in the archives of the Legal Office of this Ministry.
Dada en Santa Fe de Bogotá, D. C., at the twelve (12) days of March of a thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine (1999).
HECTOR ADOLFO SYNTURA VARELA
the Head Legal Office
EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF PUBLIC POWER
PRESIDENCY OF THE REPUBLIC
Santa Fe de Bogota, D. C., April 13, 1999.
Approved. Submit to the consideration of the honorable National Congress for the constitutional effects.
(Fdo.) ANDRES PASTRANA ARANGO
(Fdo.) GUILLERMO FERNANDEZ DE SOTO
The Foreign Minister
DECRETA:
ARTICLE 1o. Approve the Agreement on Technical, Scientific and Technological Cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Colombia and the Government of the Republic of Bolivia, made in the city of Santa Fe de Bogota, D. C., to the ten (10) days of the month of November 1998.
ARTICLE 2o. In accordance with the provisions of Article 1o. of Law 7a. 1944, the Agreement on Technical, Scientific and Technological Cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Colombia and the Government of the Republic of Bolivia, made in the city of Santa Fe de Bogota, D. C., at 10 (10) days of November 1998, which is approved by article 1or by this law, will force the country from the date on which the international link with respect to it is perfected.
ARTICLE 3o. This law applies as of the date of its publication.
MARIO URIBE ESCOBAR
The President of the honorable Senate of the Republic
MANUEL ENRIQUEZ ROSERO
The Secretary General of the honorable Senate of the Republic
BASILIO VILLAMIZAR TRUJILLO
The President of the Honourable House of Representatives
ANGELINO LIZANO RIVERA
The Secretary General of the Honourable House of Representatives
COLOMBIA-NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
COMMUNICATE AND COMPLY
Execute, upon revision of the Constitutional Court, pursuant to article 241-10 of the Political Constitution.
Dada in Bogotá, D. C., on December 27, 2000.
ANDRES PASTRANA ARANGO
GUILLERMO FERNANDEZ DE SOTO
The Foreign Minister
