The Diplomat
The President of Colombia, Iván Duque, said yesterday in Madrid that his country currently offers “more security than ever” to Spanish investors, especially after the signing of the Agreement for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments (APPRI), which took place last Thursday in Moncloa as part of his official trip to Spain.
“We want to reaffirm with Spain the ties in trade and investment,” said the president during his speech at the Business Act Spain and Colombia, Challenges and Investment Opportunities, organized in Casa de America by the Secretary of State for Trade, through ICEX Spain Export and Investment, Chamber of Commerce of Spain and CEOE and in collaboration with the Embassy of Colombia in Spain and ProColombia.
“The signing of the Reciprocal Investment Protection Agreement is a message for all Spanish investors, who will have more security than ever to invest in the country, but also for Colombian investment to reach Spain,” he continued. The Agreement was signed on Thursday during the meeting between Duque and the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.
According to Iván Duque, his country offers numerous incentives for investment, such as “political and institutional stability, respect for the private sector, its geostrategic location” and the fact that, “despite the pandemic crisis, Colombia has experienced this year its highest economic growth so far this century”. Apart from that, he continued, the Government has adopted a series of measures to attract foreign investment, such as 100% VAT deductions on capital goods for entrepreneurs investing in the country, 50% discounts on income tax, a “substantial reduction” in the nominal corporate tax, a simplified tax regime for SMEs or tax exemptions for five years for companies of the fourth industrial revolution.
“Colombia is a fiscally and productively competitive country, but also environmentally and sustainably”, so that “every peso invested in Colombia has an effect of less impact in terms of greenhouse gas emissions”, he continued. “We have an agenda of environmental responsibility: Colombia has a commitment to reduce its CO2 emissions by 51% by 2030 and to be a carbon neutral country by 2050,” he assured. Duque also announced that there are currently “15 mega-projects” of infrastructure in the country “that will be opening for bidding in the next twelve weeks and that will hopefully attract Spanish investors”.
During the opening of the forum, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, recalled that “in a year as complicated for everyone as 2020, marked by the pandemic, Spain invested more than 1,800 million dollars in Colombia”. “There are currently more than 650 Spanish companies installed in Colombia, of all sizes and present in all sectors, driving the generation of employment and the development of the country,” continued the minister, who pointed out that “the 25 largest Spanish companies in Colombia generate more than 50,000 direct jobs and nearly one million indirect jobs.”
“Spanish investment in Colombia is key in areas such as infrastructure and telecommunications,” said the minister. “Other key sectors for Spanish companies are tourism and the agro-industrial sector, and opportunities are opening up for Spanish companies in fields such as electric mobility and new uses of urban spaces,” she added.
For her part, Colombia’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Tourism, Ximena Lombana, stated that the APPRI “will allow for greater confidence and more security in mutual investments”. “We want Spain and its businessmen to become our main allies and to see our country as the best destination for investment,” added Lombana, who recalled that Colombia maintains “a network of 17 trade agreements that allow it preferential access to 1.6 billion consumers in the world.”
CEOE announces the new Colombia-Spain Business Council
During the business debate that followed, moderated by the Secretary of State for Trade, Xiana Méndez, CEOE President Antonio Garamendi announced the creation of a new Business Council between Colombia and Spain, agreed the day before with the President of the Colombian Business Association (ANDI), Bruce McMaster (also present at the forum), and which will bring together representatives of the private sector and the regions of the two countries.
