:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/RLS7K2CKHFD35B5WYAYGWFXAFY.jpg "Entrepreneurs hope investment opportunities won’t be lost with energy transition")
The Colombian American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham Colombia) to examine Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism a series of reflections to strengthen the proposal of reindustrialization policy that this portfolio announced a few weeks ago in order to boost the national industry and its competitiveness.
Through a letter addressed to the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Germán Umaña, the president of AmCham Colombia, Maria Claudia Lacouturesaid that the initiative has positive variables and that in this sense “it is our desire to share the expectations of the productive sector, to contribute to proposals on specific issues, to offer experience and knowledge commercial”.
The communication contains six points where AmCham Colombia makes suggestions or thoughts aimed at enriching the implementation of the initiative taking into account the need for better productivity conditions and the impact that the policy will have on the national economy.
In the first point of AmCham Colombia’s communication to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, it is stated that “we share the objective of moving, in a fair and balanced way, from an extractivist economy to a knowledge-based, productive and sustainable economy” and warns at the same time that “given the opportunities offered by the mining-energy sector, it is important to encourage the transition without losing the opportunities that remain to attract investment, balance balance of trade and create jobs.
“The energy transition must not compete with the possibilities of extracting the natural resources necessary to guarantee the budget necessary for the change of model and its consolidation”, indicates the letter.
He pointed out that 15% of the world’s investments are directed towards oil, coal and gas, therefore, having opportunities, it is necessary to rely on them to generate the actions that allow the transition to be carried out. Moreover, it is not only important for its resources but also for the creation of jobs in territories where these sectors are the main employers and their transfer to other productive sectors is not in the short term.
The former minister also underlined the need to overcome the work inequalitiesparticularly in terms of gender, and the importance of promoting a retraining of jobs towards jobs of better quality and qualification in order to generate more income for Colombians, without forgetting to take into account the creation of the first job in the primary sectors, and new industries that quickly offer formal and long-term employment opportunities.
As part of the reindustrialization policy of strengthen the competitiveness of companiesTherefore, AmCham Colombia points out that “without a doubt there are great opportunities in Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia for Colombian products, however, there is still a long way to go and great opportunities with the main partner trade of Colombia, namely the United States. and cannot be excluded from the proposal to strengthen promotion and sales actions, investment attraction and tourism”.
Currently, UNITED STATES is the main destination of national exports with a 25.8% stake in 2022, according to data from the Danishan entity that declared that the sales of Colombian products to this country were accounted for in 14,757.5 million USD in 2022a growth of 34.7% compared to the same period of 2021, registering at 10,959.6 million dollars.
Drawing attention to the need to take more advantage of the potential of this country, AmCham Colombia pointed out that the United States is a known, explored and worked market, it is based on what has been built, because, although ‘there are significant efforts in researching other markets, the results are barely acceptable. Moreover, that the opening of markets for export basket This will take time because the most difficult thing will be to consolidate competitive products that can compete with a certain comparative advantage.
“We can’t miss the improved opportunities in the United States, it’s a better known market, which is open, where we have been accepted, we are today competitive on the products which can be exported if a support public-private is obtained for the diversification of both products and buyers,” he insisted.
According to AmCham Colombia, each of the productive bets is important and relevant for the economic and social development of the country and for this reason, he highlighted the commitment to reindustrialization in the health sector, which must consider actions with any company in the sector that bets on Colombia, whether national or international”.
The letter signed by the president of AmCham Colombia indicates that in the process of creating local production capacity for generic drugs, vaccines, devices and parts for medical devices, it is essential to work both in clinical trials and in research, development and strengthening of intellectual propertyin conjunction with the business fabrics nationals and foreigners established in the country to facilitate the processes of scale, good practices, efficiency and effectiveness.
“It is important to have in the reindustrialization the foreign investment which today already produces different medicines in Colombia, and which can contribute and accompany a productive process, because it knows the processes, the markets, the sources of financing, the needs, as well as the scientific and productive capacity to manufacture in Colombia”, emphasized AmCham Colombia.
This warns that the reindustrialization policy must be accompanied by a strengthening of the Invima (National Institute for Food and Drug Surveillance), without losing sight of the need to maintain international quality standards and learn from international models for the development of the international pharmaceutical industry that can bring great breakthroughs to the idea of industrializing the industry.
One of the sectors that could benefit the most from the reindustrialization process is that of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. (MSME)as good as popular economy, who could participate in public procurement processes. For this, those who have already had experience in internationalization process they are better trained and meet the requirements to respond to public procurement processes.
In this process, AmCham Colombia proposes a work of strengthening of the productive chain of micro and small enterprises as well as those who belong to the popular economy, inserting them into international markets and supporting them throughout the industrialization process, in which large companies can be mentors and generate greater added value with an acceleration of the production process and insertion in the public procurement market and their internationalization.
In this regard, AmCham’s letter indicates that extreme regulation without consultation is one of the major obstacles to internationalization.
This indicates that from the private sector there is awareness to be made available to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism and help establish key standards and regulatory needs to work with the business community in their compliance, allowing them to have more opportunities for UNITED STATES.