Colombia contains five of the top ten most states with the best direct foreign investment strategies in all of South America according to new rankings from London’s Financial Times (FT).
The FT intelligence report said Colombia’s most attractive state for direct foreign investment strategy is Atlantico state, located on Colombia’s northern Caribbean coast. The state, which contains Colombia’s fourth largest city Barranquilla, ranked fifth on the “Editor’s choice” list in the report.
Economic analysts working with the London Financial Times reportedly judged 237 South American sub-national states based on foreign investment strategy in addition to five other categories.
These other categories were economic potential, human capital, business climate, infrastructure and profitability.
In the overall rankings only Bogota made it into the top 25, ranking fifth in all of South America.
Bogota was also ranked the best “Business Friendliness” state in all of South America.
The other Colombian states to make it into the top ten for foreign investment strategies were Bolivar in seventh, which is also on the Caribbean coast, Valle de Cauca in eighth, located in the southwest, Risaralda in ninth, located in the center and Santander located in the north center of Colombia.
Brazilian states made up the other five spots in the top ten, including the top four places. The state with the highest foreign investment in South America is reportedly Sao Paulo followed by second place Rio de Janeiro. Sao Paulo ranked highest overall and in foreign investment strategies, reportedly receiving just over 20% of all Latin American direct foreign investment between January 2008 and December 2013, reported El Heraldo. This summer’s World Cup and 2016’s Summer Olympics have attracted a great deal of foreign investment.
The Atlantico state’s high-ranking by the London Financial Times was partially attributed to ProBarranquilla, an investment promotion agency funded by the area government, according to El Heraldo.
Last year the agency drew $700 million in investment. ProBarranquilla says they have brought more than $2.2 billion dollars to the region and created 13,500 jobs.
The Atlantico state is reportedly second only to Bogota in terms of business investment in Colombia, said El Heraldo.
Sources
- Atlántico, en el Top 10 de regiones que atraen inversión (El Heraldo)
- South American States of the Future 2014/15 (London Financial Times)
- South American States of the Future 2014/2015 (London Financial Times PDF)
- ProBarranquilla
- 4 departamentos colombianos están en top 10 de regiones suramericanas que atraen inversión (Pulzo)