BOGOTA, Sept. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) expressed concerns on Thursday over the problems in Colombia related to the forced displacement of people and the loss of human capital due to migration of nationals to other countries.

    In its annual report "the State of World Population 2004," UNFPA Representative to Colombia Lucy Wartenberg said Colombia "has an admirable record of advances to share," especially in the field of regulation.

    However, Wartenberg noted that "to these economic and social factors one has to add the armed conflict that translates into forced displacements."

    She pointed out that Colombia's rural areas "have been suffering from a depopulation, to the point that 77 percent of the total population of the country lives in urban centers."

    The report also noted an increase "in migration of Colombians out of the country, which in the 1990s was quite low," saying that between 1996 and 2002, 200,000 people left the country, and the number of citizens living abroad currently is "above 3 million."

    According to the report, a large number of Colombians living abroad has a high level of education so the country is losing "investment on human resources."

    Colombian migrants abroad brought in over 3 billion US dollars in remittances last year, making Colombia the third largest recipient of such sources in Latin America, behind Mexico and Brazil.

    The money Colombia receives from its nationals living overseas currently is the most important source of foreign currency, even exceeding the income from petroleum, the UNFPA report said. Enditem