US investors see Colombia as one of the better bets for high-tech investment in Latin America, said the delegates at an international summit in Medellin.
In the last 18 months, Colombia has really started to attract more foreign investment in the innovation sector, said Catalina Ortiz general manager of iNNpulsa, the government agency helping to grow Colombian entrepreneurship and innovation.
“The innovation race is on and it is very exciting to be a part of. The Pacific Tiger economies [Chile, Peru and Colombia] are competing together, but also collaborating to experiment with different ways of doing things.” she said, in a interview with Colombia Reports, “It used to be a joke, saying Colombia and innovation in the same sentence. Now people are starting to hear Colombia’s name mentioned more and more in the investment sector.”
Jesse Grainger, from US business accelerator firm Agora Partnerships said Colombia was looking more attractive to investors as other destinations become unfavorable.
“Brazil and Argentina are both less attractive than Colombia because of the tax structures there.”
Ortiz and Grainger made their comments at an Aspen Institute summit that brought together Colombian business people, tech investors, NGOs and US State department delegates in Medellin on Friday. This is the first major event in South America for the influential US leadership foundation.
Executive Director of Aspen’s global alliances program and one of the organizers of the event, Mickey Bergman said the idea was to bring together investors with a wide range of people from Colombia’s innovation sector.
MORE: Colombia needs to find alternative to Silicon Valley model: Tech entrepreneur
“We came to Colombia because it stood out. The free trade agreement and [US development program] Small Business Network of the Americas meant that there were already links between the US and Colombia.”
“The other reason is that there is the change in thinking about investing in Colombia. More and more US investors are looking at Colombia.”
“We hope to help strengthen those connections,” he said.
Sources
- Interview with Catalina Ortiz
- Interview with Mickey Bergman
- Interview with Jesse Grainger
- Launch of the Small Business Network of the Americas, International Sister Center Program (US State Department)
