US companies developed more than 40 projects in Bogota last year

BOGOTA, Colombia, June 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Invest in Bogota reports that in 2018, Bogota experienced a 37% increase in greenfield foreign direct investment compared to 2017 and received more than USD 2.7 billion as a result of new and expansion projects. With more than 40 projects and USD 414 million in investments in 2018, American companies continue to position themselves as key players of greenfield foreign direct investment in the Colombian capital.

Spain, France, Mexico and Chile are just some of the other countries that have ventured into greenfield foreign investment projects in the Colombian capital, which shows that Bogota is not only an attractive business destination for Latin America, but for other regions of the world as well.

The most popular sectors to invest in include textiles (18.8%), software and IT services (12.87%), consumer products (11.88%), corporate services (9.9%) and telecom (7.43%).

These positive figures are not only for 2018. Over the last ten years, the city's GDP grew by 3.6%, which exceeded the average for Latin America (2%). According to estimates from the Research and Market Intelligence department of Invest in Bogota, the city's investment agency, Bogota-Region received more than USD 22.2 billion in greenfield foreign direct investment for new and expansion projects in the last decade, which account for approximately 35% of Colombia's total. There are more than 1,100 projects from foreign companies that have created over 119,000 new jobs. 

Looking ahead, foreign direct investment is expected to keep rising. The outlook is positive: in the first quarter of the year, Colombia received more than USD 3.3 billion in foreign investment, an increase of more than 68% compared to the same period in 2018, when the economy experienced a significant slowdown.

These figures could be explained by the prospects for greater economic growth by the end of 2019, which will in turn boost the confidence of investors. On the other hand, thanks to the appreciation of the exchange rate, foreign companies could be more willing to invest in projects with foreign currency-denominated debt or that export a percentage of their production.

SOURCE Invest in Bogotá

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