British investors interested in expanding their presence in Colombia

• 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.