Colombia and India will sign a bilateral agreement for the promotion and protection of investment in New Delhi Tuesday to encourage reciprocal business ventures between the two nations. The agreement with India is a move by Colombia to break into the Asian market.
The Minister for Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Luis Guillermo Plata, will sign the agreement, which is designed to stimulate direct Indian investment in Colombia and vice-versa.
The signing of the agreement follows three rounds of negotiations that began in April 2008.
“What we are doing is creating ties so that investment grows,” said Plata, adding that direct investment from India in Colombia between 2002 and 2008 reached US$1.6 million.
The Minister’s stop off in India as part of an international tour to promote tourism and international investment in Colombia. Prior to India Plata visited Germany and the United Arab Emirates.
Agreements such as this are used by Colombia to attract foreign investment, as a first step towards potential future free trade agreements. Colombia already signed similar agreements with Peru, Switzerland, Spain and China, according to the Ministry’s website.
The sectors in the Colombian economy that have seen the most foreign investment in the last five years are transport, mining and construction.
Once signed, the agreement must pass before Colombia Congress and the Constitutional Court to be ratified.