FLOW OF FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN COLOMBIAN TERRITORY, STRATEGY OF THE MINISTRY OF TRADE TO STRENGTHEN BILATERAL RELATIONS
By: Leslie Benitez – International Business Assistant CCJCI.
Support: Seleny Santamaria, Research Assistant y Valentina Sanchez, International Business Intern.
Currently the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism is working together with the Binational Chambers of Colombia, this in order to regionalize and capture information that is easily accessible by the Chambers and serves as support in the decisions made by the Ministry, in where ProColombia is also located. Foreign Investment flows to Colombia registered growth from 2021 to 2022, the United States (US$4,976 million), Spain (US$2,737 million) and Panama (US$1,982 million) the countries that invest the most in the country; and the sectors that have benefited from this have been the economic activities of financial and business services (US$5,530 million), mining and oil (US$4,367 million), transportation and communications (US$1,812 million) and commerce, restaurants, and hotels (US $1,506 million).
Among the key points that the Ministry of Commerce has mapped, we find "Establishing the sectors and subsectors in which the Asian country can be a strategic partner in terms of investment, public or public-private partnerships." In the case of relations between Japan and Colombia, it must be taken into account that a Memorandum of Cooperation is being worked on, and work is being done to attract investment from Japan to the country; One of the comments expressed by Japanese companies is that there is no EPA (Economic Association Agreement), a type of Bilateral Agreement widely used by the Japanese government, and found in countries such as Mexico, Chile and Peru, this type of agreement benefits not only commercial processes but also promotes investment and cooperation projects in the beneficiary country. However, Colombia, despite the fact that it does not have this agreement, is working to formulate projects of interest to Japanese companies, such as in the renewable energy and clean fuel sectors.
Following this line of sectors where Foreign Investment projects can be worked on is Infrastructure, more specifically the road. In this item, the differences in road infrastructure between Japan and Colombia must be taken into account, being the first recognized for its work in the continuous improvement of its roads, where with technological aids they have a safer control of these, and where It has a port infrastructure with around 160 ports. The main ports are: Yokohama, Osaka, Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, among others. On the other hand, Colombia only has one port in the Pacific region, the closest connection to the ports of Japan.
Following this line of sectors where Foreign Investment projects can be worked on is Infrastructure, more specifically the road. In this item, the differences in road infrastructure between Japan and Colombia must be taken into account, being the first recognized for its work in the continuous improvement of its roads, where with technological aids they have a safer control of these, and where It has a port infrastructure with around 160 ports. The main ports are: Yokohama, Osaka, Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, among others. On the other hand, Colombia has only one port in the Pacific region, the closest connection to the ports of Japan.
Currently in Colombia, work is being done on the creation of strategies for improvements in agricultural processes, this taking into account the guidelines of the current government, where the field must be developed, together with farmers, peasants and all the processes that are carried out. for the cultivation and gathering of good quality food. Taking into account these guidelines and the intention of development through investment, strategies must be worked on together with both national and international Start-ups that present projects to improve production processes in the field. Thus operating in two ways, the way of developing new technologies with the support of entrepreneurs; and foreign investment in a sector with potential such as Colombian agriculture.
It is a joint work of the public and private sectors to be able to develop projects that benefit the different sectors that Colombia has, this in order to improve the quality of these and the quality of life that Colombians receive. For this reason, the Colombian-Japanese Chamber is working together with the Ministry of Commerce and the block of Binational Chambers of Colombia to show the countries that are represented the different opportunities to invest, cooperate, generate an exchange of goods and services and most importantly, an exchange of knowledge; in order to highlight the opportunities that are being developed in Colombia.
Some actors such as JICA are carrying out programs to strengthen agriculture through its project for the Strengthening of Inclusive Agricultural and Rural Development to promote the Construction of Peace with legality (DRIP de PAZ) whose objective is that the areas affected by the armed conflict , mainly in the PDET regions, the integral agricultural and rural development projects are strengthened with the social inclusion and economic self-sustainability of the families of the victims, and the administrative and technical capacity for the planning and implementation of ADR projects is reinforced. On the other hand, it is expected that the reindustrialization of agriculture will be supported by the inclusion of technology and other tools to potentiate this sector.
References
Defencarga
Gustavo Petro, Página Web, Campo y Agricultura
ANÁLISIS DEL PERFIL LOGÍSTICO DE JAPÓN, Revista: Observatorio Iberoamericano de la Economía y la Sociedad del Japón, ISSN: 1988-5229
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