Good News from Colombia

1. Guest Columnist

Undoubtedly, Colombia is a diverse country brimming with talent and a hardworking population, characteristics reflected in its entrepreneurship ethos, which is unique in the region. Colombia also has other features that make it a great country. Political and macroeconomic stability, outstanding growth indicators, enviable geographical conditions, and the strength of its institutions make the Colombian democracy a role model for the region. We see many opportunities for collaboration between Colombia and Israel and their business sectors, which will bring mutual benefits to our nations. But to take advantage of these opportunities, I consider it essential to start by creating links between the two ecosystems, breaking rigid paradigms, and thinking outside the box to obtain innovative results. For example, not only creating new joint ventures but also involving third parties from other countries that can, among other things, support these alliances with financing or mentoring. That said, I believe that there are three specific areas in which, without a doubt, Colombia has significant competitive advantages to attract the attention of Israeli businesspeople, attract foreign investment from my country and create new joint ventures. The first of these is agritech, given that Colombia's agricultural wealth and Israeli technology would make an ideal match. Second is the environment, where again, the natural wealth of Colombia, combined with Israeli experience and technology, could bring great benefits to both countries. Finally, we have the health sector, since we have identified the Colombian health system as one of the most developed in the world, sharing similar characteristics with the Israeli system, where our technology could help take it to the next level.

There are also opportunities for macro collaboration to help improve the Colombian entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem. However, despite Israel being a world leader in this field, consolidating itself as a global mecca for entrepreneurship and innovation, I believe it is impossible to make a replica of our model in Colombia. Not because the Colombian ecosystem has any structural problems, but because each one has particular characteristics, whether cultural or public policy related, that makes an exact copy impossible and not only of the Israeli model but of any other. Despite the above, one dimension in which we can significantly help improve the Colombian entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem is developing public policies under the best standards. In this field, I consider that there are three major strategic axes in which Israel would be of great support: i) development of a general framework to promote and improve access to financing for the high-tech industry; ii) establishing a successful industry-academia relationship model; and iii) strengthening the educational system based on STEM and teaching foreign languages at all levels, from basic to higher education, to better meet the demands of the productive system.

Following the above from the Embassy of Israel in Colombia, we work on building the necessary structures to take advantage of these opportunities. First of all, we support the implementation of the FTA between our two countries, which entered into force in August 2020 amid the pandemic, which is why we have only begun to see results until