Economía del desarrollo y calidad de vida: estudio regional para Santander, Colombia[Development economics and quality of life: regional study to Santander, Colombia]

The urgent need for higher levels of productivity and competitiveness to meet the demands of the domestic and international market, poses serious challenges to productive and educational systems of the department of Santander, Colombia. It follows from the results obtained in the two sectors; so, the economic profile of the department shows that the first half of the nineties was marked by an increase of the order of 4.2% of GDP, which however was a reflection of the economic activity that took traditional economic sectors (leather, clothing, metallurgical, food timber, graphics); ie, there was the expected technical and technological change as a result of the opening of the country in advance, to enable the business sector santanderano properly inserted domestic and international capital markets. This trend continued during the second half of the decade, and only during the last three years (2000-2003), began to show results (stabilization of the financial system, decrease the deficit of the public sector and a more competitive exchange rate) , which raised hopes of entrepreneurs and regional institutions, although the pace of overall economic growth decreased at an average annual rate of around 2.3%.