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Around 60 U.S. investors from various sectors will attend three seminars that PROCOLOMBIA has scheduled in Miami, Chicago and Toronto, Canada on May 25, 31 and 29 respectively. These entrepreneurs will learn about the benefits and opportunities that the free trade zones bring as well as the Colombian regions which offer settlement opportunities for foreign companies in the country.
These events will provide entrepreneurs with an summary of the regime of free trade zones in Colombia and highlight the benefits of investing in them given the advantages of free trade agreements made in force with Canada and the United States, the latter on May 15.
The first of these meetings will take place on May 25 at the Doral Intercontinental Hotel in Miami. It will host representatives of different regional investment agencies where they will hold one to one meetings with participants to offer and explore new business opportunities.
The second and third meetings will be scheduled in Toronto on May 29 at the Hyatt Avenue Road and in Chicago on May 31 at the Doubletree Hotel O' Hare. It is expected that 20 investors will participate in each seminar.
The Free zones in Colombia have a competitive legal framework and provide benefits to foreign investors, including an income tax of 15% domestic market sales without restrictions and exemptions from import duties and VAT.
In addition, there are about four million square meters available for foreign companies wishing to settle in permanent free trade zones, located in the departments of Atlántico, Bolívar, Guajira, Magdalena, Cundinamarca, Boyacá, Santander, Antioquia, Risaralda, Caldas, Quindío Valle del Cauca, Huila, Cauca and North of Santander, which offer a wide variety of features that make them competitive and high value added for foreign investment.
Investment Opportunities
As part of the strategy to attract foreign direct investment (FDI), PROCOLOMBIA has identified some areas of opportunity for the arrival of Canadian and U.S. capital to the country.
In the case of the U.S., there are several opportunities available pertaining to the Free Trade Agreement. One of them is to regard Colombia as an export platform to Latin American, European and Asian countries that currently do not have free trade agreements with the U.S.. This is the case of the automotive, food and tobacco sectors.
Another sector with potential given the arrival of U.S. investment, are the telecommunications, construction materials, agribusiness, mining and textiles, among many others.
An example of some U.S. companies that have settled in Colombia are Kimberly Clark, Hewlett Packard, Golden Gate Capital, Hilton, Lender Systems, Intellitech, Whyndham Hotels, among others.
In addition, for Canada (which in 2011 recorded a flow of investment to Colombia of $ 173.8 million USD) sectors with greatest potential are the financial services, software and IT services, BPO, agribusiness, oil and gas. Canadian companies operating in Colombia include Scotiabank, Pacific Rubiales, and Synergex McCain, among others.
