Colombia Organizes Investors Summit to Shore up the Economy

Colombia is gearing up to organize an investment summit in October to attract investment in a range of sectors including infrastructure, tourism, energy, and agribusiness.

More than 500 investors from around the world are expected to participate in the event, partly aimed at shoring up the economy that is showing signs of a slowdown in recent years.

The two-day summit, to be attended by the country’s President Iván Duque, will begin on October 29, stated the country’s investment promotion agency ProColombia.

This is the fifth annual summit the country is organizing, with the last event successfully generating US$720 million in investment and more than 6,400 jobs.

This time, the Andean country has decided to offer hefty incentives to lure foreign investors.

“We will continue working on the creation of incentives to attract large foreign direct investment projects and to optimize the free zone model as a driver of regional development,” says the country’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism.

“In the same way, we will focus on creating sectoral tax schemes and, also, on promoting red carpet strategies that bring together tax, institutional, regulatory, legal, financial tools, mainly, and that to date show satisfactory results.”

The summit will feature sectoral meetings, which will allow ‘priority investment opportunities’ and more specialized discussions for investors in various sectors such as orange economy, clinical studies, and renewable energy.

According to UNCTAD’s 2019 World Investment Report, Colombia’s FDI inflows decreased in 2018, to US$11 billion, compared to US$13.8 billion received in 2017. The United States has long been the largest investor in the country while the European Union is the largest FDI provider geographically.

A bilateral free trade agreement with the United States, a peace deal with the FARC rebels and the establishment of special regulations in the free-trade zones have all greatly improved the country’s attractiveness.

Colombia ranked 65th out of 190 economies in the World Bank’s 2019 Doing Business report.