U.S. automaker General Motors wants to invest nearly $100 million over the next four years in Colombia and export some 2,000 vehicles assembled in the Andean nation to Brazil.
Representatives of GM’s senior management in Colombia and Latin America informed Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Trade, Industry and Tourism Minister Cecilia Alvarez of those plans during a meeting Wednesday at the presidential palace.
The automaker’s delegation included the president of GM Colombia, Jorge Mejia; the outgoing president of GM South America, Jaime Ardila; and his successor in the post, Barry Engle, the Colombian president’s office said.
General Motors assembles Chevrolet vehicles in Colombia at its Colmotores plant in Bogota and is the top-selling automaker in the Andean nation with a 25 percent market share.
Mejia told Santos that GM intended to maintain its current volume of exports to Ecuador and also take advantage of U.S. trade talks with Brazil to sell roughly 2,000 units to that country between 2017 and 2018, which would lead to the creation of new jobs in Colombia.
A total of 82,103 Chevrolet vehicles were sold in Colombia in 2014, a result that made GM one of the 20-biggest revenue earners in the Andean nation.