LEGAL FRAMEWORK

Marclais EV appliance is manufactured in Colombia by Marclais enterprises. It is also one of the certified tech devices included in the official equipment list for environmental control as published by the Colombian Ministry for Environment per resolution act #864 dated August 6, 1996 which authorized a former agreement signed between car assemblers, vehicle import companies and government agencies (Ecopetrol, Ministry of Environment and others) intended to comply with the constitutional mandate for environment protection enforcement.

The certification of Marclais EV device as valid ecology friendly equipment was made official through document letter # 355 dated May 7, 1997 issued by the Ministry´s legal department and mailed to Marclais headquarters in Bogotá. The resolution act # 864 also specifies that all buyers of emission control equipment for new vehicles will be entitled a 50% off the regular price discount (up to $500,000 COP limit) which is to be deducted from the applicable sales tax at purchase time, as required by Law (Article #170 in Act # 223 of 1995, regulated by government decree # 2306 dated December 19, 1996).

In addition to that, Colombian government, in an effort to encourage the use of environmental control equipment for all the existing car fleet in the country, decided to grant Marclais ecological valve a sales tax exemption status based on the fact that EV is a Colombian made product and local initiative for actual environment protection. This fact was accredited by certification letter # 106 dated June 17, 1997, signed by Dr. Favio Arjona Hincapie, Deputy Minister for Environment, in concordance with Article #4 Act 223 of 1995 which amended Article 424-5 of the National Tax Code Regulation.

However, it is fair enough to note that enforcement guidelines on the maximum contamination levels permitted by law do not seem to be that demanding or hard to comply with. This law gap might be linked to the fact that regular service age for all the vehicle fleet in Colombia is 10 years. (40% of the bus fleet also averages 10 years in service. And 60% of all trucks average 20 years). That means that even with proper timely engine synchronization most local vehicles would actually not be ready to pass the ecological parameters required.

Therefore, national ecological awareness must be prompted through not only vehicle engine synchronization measures but also through prevention campaigns and the use of innovative clean technologies. Citizens must first be trained and empowered to protect nature rather than being forced, through penalization or expensive fines, to comply with ecological rules that in real life are inoperable.

In the long run our corporate main goal is to help prevent air pollution rapid growth levels in our cities, which has become a real public concern issue. Alarms were sounded after learning about the shocking contamination level results obtained by the Japanese Mission for the Environment (JICA), an international entity hired by the Colombian Ministry of Health, which ranked Bogota among the most polluted cities in the world. Also Bogotá got a shameful fourth position in the Latin American most polluted metropolis listing after Mexico City, Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires.

Although Bogota has a smaller vehicle fleet when compared to Mexico City, the high pollution ratio can be traced on the lower oxygen density per high altitude, which can trigger incomplete gas combustion in motor vehicles thus launching a higher amount of contaminating gases into the atmosphere. This problem gets aggravated when considering other close related factors associated with deficient performance of overused and deteriorated engines that became worn-out early due to diluted lubricants contaminated with excess gas debris (not consumed in the combustion process), that ends up affecting the motor lubrication performance while producing extra gas emissions.

Finally, it is important to keep in mind that Marclais ecological valve has an official invention patent and product license issued by the Colombian Ministry of Commercial Development. That certificate ensures full copyright warranties and legal protection to Marclais industrial model design against any counterfeit copying attempt. Colombian and international copyright laws are known for being implacable against copyright frauds and they usually impose tough criminal sanctions on copyright violators.

Last but not least, we must not ignore Marclais further commercial opportunities given the current huge market integration by the signing countries of the Cartagena Agreement as well as the G3 Latin economic group initiatives which will ensure and encourage our product sales in the region.