- The fifth edition of the Colombia Investment Roadshow,
held by ProColombia in London,
marked a milestone by being the first focused exclusively on
sustainability.
MADRID, May 13, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- This event was the perfect place for people from
the United Kingdom and
Colombia to come together. In
2025, the two countries will celebrate 200 years of diplomatic
relations. The investment summit featured presentations on
investment opportunities for 50 projects, alongside an exhibition
highlighting product and service providers across key sectors
including infrastructure, energy, and tourism.
Germán Umaña Mendoza, the Minister of Trade, Industry, and
Tourism, highlighted that "the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and
Tourism is developing the second phase of the One-Stop Shop for
Investment (VUI, as per its acronym in Spanish). This platform
provides a place where foreign investors interested in injecting
their capital in Colombia can find
all the strategic investment projects in different regions of the
Country of Beauty."
He added that through the VUI, "investors will be able to carry
out the entire process to make their investment a reality."
The Colombian Ambassador to the United
Kingdom stated, "Colombia's
geographical position in the center or Latin America has proved to be strategic in
our changing and multipolar world. Our country is a source of clean
energy, water, food, and biodiversity. The Colombia Investment
Roadshow is an event to promote Colombia and present strategic projects that
the Colombian government is interested in developing with foreign
direct investment through private capital and public-private
partnerships."
The projects, valued at more than US $5.9
billion, are collated in the One-Stop Shop for Investment.
Notable opportunities include the Alta Guajira and Gustavo Rojas Pinilla airports, the La Dorada –
Chiriguaná train, the Cupica – Urabá train, and the Pasto – Popayán
highway corridor.
Colombia's largest
internationally-held event for attracting foreign direct investment
took place at the Raffles hotel in London on April
23 and 24. More than 250 attendees participated—mainly from
the United Kingdom, as well as
other European countries including Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Ireland, and the
Netherlands.
During this event, more than 30 meetings between companies and
representatives of the Colombian government were held. In addition,
private projects had the opportunity to interact with investors in
networking spaces, which promoted collaboration and created
synergies.
As a result of the Colombia Investment Roadshow, "The Country of
Beauty" attracted investment that will promote sustainable
development, reindustrialization, the creation and transfer of
science, technology, and knowledge, regional development and
strengthening of the Colombian business network, the energy
transition, and the reduction of inequality, with the aim of
contributing to total peace.
During the event, both Colombia's and the United Kingdom's Ministries of Transportation
confirmed the establishment of the Strategic Project Management
Office, which will allow for the highest quality standards and best
international practices in key aspects such as regulation,
financing, sustainability, digital transformation, and
infrastructure portfolio management.
Colombia's Ministry of Mines
and Energy and the Government of the United Kingdom signed the Energy Transition
Action Plan that aims to establish joint strategies to accelerate a
just transition.
ProColombia President Carmen
Caballero emphasized, "Our government is very open to
foreign direct investment. The Colombia Investment Roadshow is a
key part of ProColombia's strategy to position the country as a
sustainable investment destination in Latin America and publicize projects of
national interest in infrastructure, tourism, and renewable
energies. The United Kingdom is a
strategic partner we are interested in continuing to develop
business opportunities with."
The event's high-level academic agenda included the
participation of the following Colombian ministers: Germán
Umaña Mendoza, Minister of Trade, Industry, and Tourism;
Ricardo Bonilla, Minister of Finance
and Public Credit; María Constanza García Alicastro, Vice Minister
of Transportation; Johana Rocha Gómez, Vice Minister of Mines and
Energy; Roy Barreras, the Colombian
ambassador to the United Kingdom;
George Hodgson, Ambassador of the
United Kingdom in Colombia, the vice presidents of Investment
and Tourism of ProColombia, economist Mariana Mazzucato, representatives of the World
Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and Agencia Nacional de
Hidrocarburos, as well as companies such as Macquarie Group, JP
Morgan, Ecopetrol, and Grupo Energía Bogotá.
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