Colombia’s Ambassador to India Juan Alfredo Pinto announced that 132 Indian businesses will travel to Colombia to participate in Bogota‘s International Trade Fair in the first week of October.
“We have concluded a six month preparation process that included six promotional events in Delhi, Mumbai, Calcuta, Chennai, Bangalore and Combatore, with the support of the Indian Council for the Promotion of Exports and with the participation of Proexport,” Pinto said.
“Indian businesses and institutions picked up on [Colombia’s] Bicentennial of Independence celebrations and we integrated that into our efforts to encourage Indian businesses to come to the Bogota Fair. They are interested in our market and we do not hide our desire for Indian representatives, distributors and partners to invest in Colombia,” Pinto continued.
Under the name Indee Colombia 2010, the Indian Council along with Proexport promoted exports in the sectors of engineering, capital goods, plastics, packing, mining, metallurgy, energy, electricity, telecommunications and information technology.
Trade between Colombia and India has increased by 200% over the last two years from $350 million in 2007 to $1 billion in 2009.
Pinto said that Colombian exports to Indian had been lacking but were starting to level out “thanks to our exports of coal, petroleum, sugar and nickel.” Meanwhile India has been investing in Colombia’s information technology, mining, pharmaceutical and packing industries.
“Thanks to our new agreements on investment promotion and the elimination on double tax duties, we consider it feasible that in the next two years there will be more than ten Indian companies in Colombia, contributing to the generation of employment, the transfer of technologies and the internationalization of our economy,” Pinto said.