The Colombian government on Friday committed itself to reducing the country's poverty rate from the current 49.2 percent to 30 percent by 2010, the end of the second term of President Alvaro Uribe, who was re-elected in May.

The promise is part of the country's 2006-2010 development plan, publicly presented on Friday by Carolina Renteria, director of the National Planning Department (DNP).

The plan also promises to reduce abject poverty, which currently affects some 7 million Colombians, from 14.7 percent to 10 percent over the same period.

Renteria said the government would apply both social and economic strategies to achieve the goal.

Some 1.5 million Colombians have already been involved in the Families in Action Program, a pillar of Uribe's socio-economic strategy.

The DNP plan is based on a yearly growth rate of 5 percent during each year of Uribe's governance.

Colombia's economic authorities also said citizens would have better access to health care if the nation's legislators approved on Friday a constitutional amendment reforming the system that funds the health service.

Renteria said that approving the change would extend education to 1.7 million children over the next four years, and extend the national health service to 7.5 million more citizens.

Source: Xinhua