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Monday, 08 September, 2008, 00:10 GMT | more prices >>

Bogota eyes biofuels booster



By Upstream staff 

Wild grasslands in Colombia offer the Latin American country the prospect of boosting its biofuel production substantially without environmental damage, Colombian Trade Minister Luis Guillermo Plata said.

Plata told Reuters that 400,000 square kilometres of Colombia's 1.1 million square kilometre territory is idle, and much of that is grassland.

"You don't have to chop down the rainforest in order to make space to plant biofuels," Plata told the news agency.

"And you don't have to sacrifice other crops to make biofuels... you don't have to choose between feeding machines and feeding people."

Colombia is already producing 1.1 million litres of ethanol per day, making it South America's second biggest producer after Brazil.

The country has four ethanol plants in operation and a further six in the pipeline.

Plata said Colombia had introduced special investment incentives targeting biofuel production.

Companies creating more than 500 jobs can qualify as "single enterprise free-trade zones", paying income tax of 15% instead of 34%, and being freed from value-added tax and import tariffs.


Thursday, 25 October, 2007, 17:29 GMT  | last updated: Thursday, 25 October, 2007, 17:33 GMT

Man with a plan: Luis Guillermo Plata
 

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