Felipe Betancourt Celis

The Strategy for Colombian Competitiveness in the Path of Going Global Now a days Colombia is living a period of economic growth from which the country needs to take advantage from. A period where productivity is increasing and a variety of services provided by the country has dramatically double in number. Thanks to what has been mentioned above unemployment rates have decrease and the economy is getting back to a place where it can grow steady and diversified. There for is important to mention that the industrial capabilities of the country have developed and grow by a rate of 17.4% which makes an event never seen before among Latin American countries. As well this comes with a period of political stability with a number of other opportunities for Colombia to go global being a leader in the region. Thats for is relevant for the country to take advantage of these opportunities to go global. Its a period where Colombia has accomplished a variety of Free Trade Agreements with global leaders such as the United States of America and Canada. On the other side, facts like the geostrategic location making it a convergent place where transport, communications, financial services and technology can be distributed along the Southern and Northern American regions as well as to world.1 For theses reasons Colombia is starting to be seen as the geographical location for companies and multinationals to run their business in order to be positioned strategically. The country could be incorporated in a strategy to install production and distribution quarters for the region. Taking advantage of the pacific and Atlantic oceans may count as well. Nonetheless in order for the country to exploit all these advantages comes the need to develop and work of the poorly built infrastructure it has acquired by the years. On the other hand, the dependent on others mindset that people and the culture has incorporated in its core has a negative impact on the pace to start solving their present obstacles and problems2. Things such as the precarious and constrain pathways, no presence of railroads, subways and others are facts that put Colombia in disadvantage in comparison
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=e-fA-gBCkj0 (2000b), Panorama social de Amrica Latina, 1999-2000, Santiago de Chile.

Felipe Betancourt Celis

with other countries.3 There fore is extremely important that the country and the people start having a global view globally oriented of the development and vision Colombia has to go through. This is important to keep and increase the number of investors, tourists, industrialists and workers of the world that may be willing to come and settle in the next big competitor of the South American region. Therefore technology and infrastructure may become the core topics to improve along the country because is one of the things needed to work the most on. The currents highways, airports and maritime ports were thought of satisfying the local volume built with such as narrow mental setup and no vision of a global competitiveness. That is why is so important to work the way up to develop and offer a high standard quality of services and quality of living in order to attract investors, talents and highly qualified workers. 4 Aside from all the advantages that have been mentioned before Colombia is coming to be the center of internationalization and globalization of the region thanks to its foreign policy and Free Trade Agreements that have been accomplished or in process to close negotiations. The Government has the initiative to create great changes and keep opening the country to new opportunities and investments. As a proof there are Free Trade Agreements being negotiated with European and Asian countries. This will result in a considerable economic grow and coming investments to the country making it the leader of the region. To help this process grow faster the leaders need to open even more the foreign investment policies wider and the financial and services sector which are the key, engines for economic grow of the developed countries. As an example there are countries such as Panama that has become a great financial area for the Americas and Colombia could be much more providing in addition technology, greater capacity of production and a leader of the new transformation era to greater grow and development. 5

Snchez, Fabio y Jairo Nez (1999), Descentralizacin, pobreza y acceso a los servicios sociales. Cornia, Giovanni Andrea (1999), Liberalization, globalization and income distribution 5 Ocampo, Jos Antonio (1999), La reforma del sistema financiero internacional: un debate en marcha, Santiago, CEPAL/Fondo de Cultura Econmica
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Felipe Betancourt Celis

In despite of the current problematic of the country there are areas where industrial and technology development have make relevant presence changing the cultural and industries environment for greater.6 The cities are starting to develop their infrastructure and overall culture. Examples of theses changes are countries like Medellin, Bogota, Cali and Barranquilla to mention few of the outstanding players. Infrastructure, communications, technology, transport and services have become the main areas of work for these cities. 7 In conclusion Colombia needs to start focusing on field that promote its economic grow, infrastructure, technology and diversifies the services the country is providing now a days. It is clear that there are even more opportunities to reduce the unequal rates and poverty lines as well as the society problems unprivileged people have to live. There for is so important to have a clear vision of what Colombia want to become in the future thus it has a solid path to work through the changes that need to be done. As has been mention along this essay foreign investment, increase in productivity, technology and services are part of the strategy for the country to grow global in a path that needs to be built. Therefore Colombia needs to focus on becoming the strategic center for the regions economy between the Americas and the world as well. The country is capable of offering a well prepared and talented labor force. The improvements of education and the higher standards may be key elements for the economic and cultural globally grow Colombia is looking for.

Ocampo, Jos Antonio, Fabio Snchez y Camilo Tovar (2000), Cambio estructural, mercado laboral y distribucin del ingreso: C olombia en la dcada de los noventa. 7 DNP (Departamento Nacional de Planeacin) (2000), Coyuntura econmica e indicadores sociales, Boletn No. 26, SISD, Bogot, julio.
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