Articulated work with embassies abroad already leaves commercial revenues for Colombia

• Regarding tourism, CO-nectados contributed to the improvement of travel warnings to Colombia for tourists from France, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea, Japan and the United States.

Bogotá DC, January 30, 2020.- The CO-nectados strategy of ProColombia celebrates one year joining efforts to boost exports and attract greater foreign investment and international tourism.

The work articulated between the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Foreign Ministry through embassies and ProColombia has left positive results in attracting foreign investment, tourism, connectivity and opening of new markets for Colombian products.

One year after its launch, the CO-nectados strategy allowed Colombian embassies in 24 countries to accompany 260 activities and 590 meetings with potential international buyers and investors.

“After a year of having implemented this strategy, the results in terms of tourism promotion, foreign investment and exports, indicate that we are being effective in strengthening the positioning of our country and in achieving a better commercial relationship with the other countries of the world, ”said the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, José Manuel Restrepo, for whom articulation with embassies today is key to exploring new business opportunities.

According to Hans Peter Knudsen, Colombian ambassador to Germany, the results of the coordinated work are indisputable. “During one of the visits to the federal states we met with businessmen and actors from the commercial sector, and the opportunity arose to increase the importation of Colombian agricultural and agroindustrial products, with concrete sales of avocado, banana and coffee. A second example is with the State Credit Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the KFW, which we visited jointly with ProColombia and thanks to that it is about to open an office in Colombia. ”

In turn, the country's ambassador to Japan, Santiago Pardo, said the joint has been consolidated and synergies between the teams have been achieved. “We achieve greater impacts and maximization of our efforts. Among the several examples I want to highlight the case of hass avocado, because we reached for that product, in development of a sanitary agenda, the import authorization in Japan, which was complemented with a commercial strategy designed by ProColombia that has already yielded its Fruits with higher exports. This year 2020 the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in Tokyo, which will give us an important window of opportunity to continue promoting our country together with ProColombia. ”

Among other results of CO-nectados is the identification to the third quarter of 2019 of nine foreign investment projects to Colombia for US $ 850 million and an estimated generation of 3,000 jobs in projects of hydraulic energy, coffee production and hass avocado, IT infrastructure, and of the cosmetic industry, among others.

In relation to tourism, CO-nectados contributed to the improvement of travel warnings to Colombia for tourists from France, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea, Japan and the United States.

And 17 new air routes were captured that began to operate between Colombia and Lima, Curacao, Santo Domingo, Madrid, Mexico City, Santiago de Chile and Cancun, among other international cities.

There was also progress in sanitary diplomacy, working with the Ministry of Agriculture, ICA and Invima that opened doors for the export of bananas to China, meat in Saudi Arabia, avocado hass to Japan and pitahaya to Argentina.