1. GUEST COLUMNIST:
Unlocking potential: the FAO Hand-in-Hand Initiative
The Hand-in-Hand (HIH) Initiative is a powerful global effort led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to accelerate agricultural transformation, with the goal of eradicating poverty, ending hunger and malnutrition, and reducing inequalities.
© FAO/Giulio Napolitano
HIH supports the implementation of nationally led and driven ambitious programs to accelerate agrifood systems transformations, prioritizing regions where poverty and inequalities are high, but agriculture (crops, fisheries, aquaculture, livestock, and forestry) have the potential to increase incomes of farmers to move them out of hunger and poverty sustainably. Its overarching goal is ambitious yet essential: to end hunger and malnutrition, eradicate poverty and reduce inequalities.
In Colombia, the Hand In Hand Initiative, “Iniciativa Mano en Mano”, aims to establish a collaborative framework between the Government and the FAO, focusing on bolstering economic and social progress in the border areas of Colombian territory. The initiative is playing a pivotal role in facilitating the mobilization of resources at the local level to sustain efforts in combating hunger, fostering the creation of sustainable agrifood systems, curbing carbon emissions and promoting thriving and inclusive rural communities.
What sets the HIH Initiative apart is its innovative approach, grounded in geospatial data and evidence to assist governments more precisely target their agricultural investments. By harnessing geospatial, biophysical, and socio-economic data alongside advanced analytics, experts can pinpoint areas with the greatest potential for agricultural transformation and sustainable management of resources. This territorial approach ensures that interventions have the most significant impact. With access to more than two million data and information layers, this comprehensive database is also an international public good that can be used by anyone free of charge.
Another key aspect of the initiative is its investment planning approach. Rather than imposing top-down solutions, the HIH Initiative engages national and local governments, experts and stakeholders in a collaborative process to identify priorities and develop tailored investment plans. This bottom-up
approach ensures that interventions are context-specific and responsive to local needs and realities, prioritizing ownership and transparency.
Country task force teams include government officials, ensuring that decisions are driven by local leadership and that programs are implemented with accountability and integrity. Partnerships are also central to the success of the initiative: governments, donors, private enterprises, civil society organizations and research institutions are brought together, facilitating synergies and resources mobilization to support implementation. Consequently, the right partners are involved and critical resources—whether technology, funding, or expertise— made available where they are needed most, empowering communities and fostering resilience.
Ultimately, it is not just about economic growth; it's about sustainable development in all its dimensions. Through partnerships and empowering communities, and by leveraging data and integrating analyses that consider economic, social and environmental factors, the initiative aims to strike a balance that promotes prosperity while safeguarding natural resources and fostering social inclusion.
Máximo Torero Cullen Chief Economist Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
2. GOOD NEWS FROM COLOMBIA AND BOGOTÁ-REGION
GOOD NEWS FROM COLOMBIA
Exports of non-mining goods grew by 10.6% in the first two months of 2024. Non-mining energy exports reached $3.2 billion dollars, consolidating the growth trend in exports of agricultural, agroindustry and manufacturing products. For more information, please visit the following link.
Colombia has the potential to export 237 million dollars worth a year to Africa . The ICC estimates that Colombia has room to increase its exports to Africa substantially. Likewise, Procolombia stated that 86 percent of the African market has not yet been explored by Colombia, a very promising region for the near future. For more information, please visit the following link
Colombia celebrated its participation in the Bologna – Italy book fair with successes for the book and children's and youth illustration industry. As part of the internationalization strategy for Colombian literature, the national delegation of authors, illustrators and editors successfully participated in the prestigious Bologna Children's Book Fair (BCBF), which took place between April 8 and 11, 2024. For more information, please visit the following link.
430 tons of coffee have been transported by train from La Dorada to the Caribbean ports In the last 18 months, the reactivation of the railways has allowed companies to take their goods from the center of the country to the main ports in the Caribbean Sea, saving on logistics costs, time and polluting emissions. For more information, please visit the following link
Trade across the Colombian-Venezuelan border increased 144.5% in the first two months. Thanks to the efforts and policies created to revive trade relations with the neighboring country, in the first two months of the year, trade across the three bridges grew more than double compared to a year ago. Between January and February, trade through that border totaled $55.5 million dollars. For more information, please visit the following link
GOOD NEWS FROM BOGOTÁ-REGIÓN
Talento Capital is the alliance between the public and private sectors for employment in Bogotá. Carlos Fernando Galán and more than 25 business associations, organizations and district entities signed the agreement within the framework of the start of Talento Capital, which seeks to generate 200,000 jobs, consolidating the alliance between companies and the district. For more information, please visit the following link
The first version of Bogotrends was successfully completed, an event that showcased the innovation, creativity and trends in the graphic arts, design, fashion and furniture production sectors. Its objective is to work with entrepreneurs and strengthen the city's business fabric with financing, events, networking and training. For more information, please visit the following link.
Bogotá had a 10% increase in tourists compared to last year. In the first 100 days, the city established itself as a crucial connection point in Latin America, promoting dynamic and accessible tourism for international travelers. It has demonstrated exceptional progress in the tourism sector, consolidating itself as a top-level destination in the region. For more information, please visit the following link
The District and the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies (MinTIC) work to turn Bogotá into a digital powerhouse through the Talento TECH project. The event highlighted the importance of positioning the capital as an exporter city for technological talent and services driven by new technologies, the democratization of knowledge in data analysis, coding, and Artificial Intelligence. For more information, please visit the following link
The District Tourism Institute ranked first in the regional tourism competitiveness index of Colombia at the departmental and capital cities level. For the seventh consecutive year, the country's capital ranked first in the index, with a score of 6.96 out of 10, ranking above other highly competitive departments. For more information, please visit the following link.
BCC NEWS AND UPCOMING EVENTS
Ovidio Claros, president of the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce, was appointed member of the Board of Directors of the World Chambers Federation. Thanks to this appointment, the entity will be able to internationally promote its strategic programs, such as promoting business strengthening, support for the popular economy and MSMEs. For more information, please visit the following link
The Bogotá Chamber of Commerce is pleased to invite MSMEs, entrepreneurs and businesspersons, industry participants and leaders, and chambers of commerce from around the world to join the ICC/WCF Summit of the Americas: Business Beyond Borders: MSMEs Going Global" on May 8 and 9, 2024 in Bogotá, Colombia. This meeting will bring together special guests and panelists, and more than 500 MSMEs from the Americas in a large business conference, along with more than 100 chamber representatives from the trade world. The Summit promises impactful discussions of great value for business and trade worldwide. For more information, please visit the following link
As a continuation of the project to reactivate trade relations with Venezuela, which hopes to achieve more than US $1 billion in 2024, the BCC and the Superintendence of Companies held the event “Tools and perspectives for doing business in Colombia and Venezuela.” With the attendance of 523 businesspersons and expectations for more than US $4.5 million in business deals, the event included conferences from the chambers of both countries and sector leaders.
The BCC launched its new sector cluster: the Bogotá Sports and Recreation Cluster. This initiative seeks to bring together more than 500 companies and strategic partners in 2024, to promote and strengthen the sports and recreation industry throughout the region with a focus on human talent, innovation, internationalization and sustainability. For more information, please visit the following link.
The Bogotá Marcando Estilo initiative, led by the BCC and the Spanish department store chain El Corte Inglés, successfully completed its third edition. After the 2019 and 2022 versions, this year's objective was to promote and develop new businesses for MSMEs in the food, gastronomy, and tourism sectors in Europe, through an international strategy to promote creation of new business for companies in the Bogotá-region, increase sales and diversify marketing channels into global markets. For more information, please visit the following link
With 73,477 visitors, the ARTBO | Weekend exceeded expectations in its eighth edition For three days, it opened 71 exhibition spaces, in galleries, museums, foundations and design spaces in different locations in Bogotá. For more information, please visit the following link.
4. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS
4.1. GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT - GDP
Colombia's GDP grew 0.6% in 2023. Although there was growth, the figure was lower than expected by analysts who estimated that the economic growth would be greater than 1%.
Graph 1.
Source: DANE
The low GDP growth for 2023 is largely explained by the decrease in the manufacturing industries (-3.5%), construction (-4.2%) and commerce (-2.8%) sectors.
4.2 ECONOMIC MONITORING INDICATOR (EMI)
According to the Economic Monitoring Indicator (EMI), there was an increase of 3.3% in January 2024 as seen in Chart 2. In February 2024, the EMI recorded a monthly growth of 1.6 %, continuing the trend of 2022 and 2023.
Graph 2. Annual growth of the Economic Monitoring Indicator (EMI)
In February 2024, the activities that showed the greatest monthly growth in the EMI were Information and communications with 1.3%, Public administration and defense with 0.7%; Manufacturing industries and Construction with 0.2%.
Regarding annual growth, Agriculture, livestock, hunting, forestry and fishing showed the greatest growth in the EMI with 7.8%. Likewise, the activities with the greatest annual decline in the economic monitoring indicator in the last year have been manufacturing and construction and Financial and insurance activities, with annual variations of -2.6% and -2.9%, respectively, for February 2024.
4.3 INFLATION
Colombia and Bogotá experienced a decrease in the monthly price variation in March 2024 compared to the same month of the previous year. In March 2023, the monthly variation in Colombia was 1.05% and in Bogotá 1.04%, while, in March 2024, it was only 0.70% and 0.82%, respectively. This decrease indicates lower inflationary pressure in the Colombian economy.
Source: DANE - Consumer Price Index (CPI).
For its part, the annual price variation in Colombia decreased from 13.34% in March 2023 to 7.36% in March 2024, while the annual price variation in March 2024 in the capital shows a reduction of 5.88 percentage points compared to the same month in 2023, from 13.26% to 7.38%.
In the spending divisions of Colombia, for March 2024, the Education division presented the greatest variation, 8.74%, followed by the spending divisions of Restaurants and hotels, and Alcoholic beverages and tobacco, with variations of 1.13%, for both.
Regarding the intervention rate, the Banco de la República continued with a strong policy and maintained a high intervention rate, which for the month of March 2024 was 12.75%. Additionally, the monetary authority in its January monetary policy report projected total and basic inflation of 5.9% and 5.4% for 2024, respectively.
4.4 LABOR MARKET
Employment has shown improvement compared to the previous year, however, at the national level the unemployment rate for February 2024 was 11.7%, 0.3 p.p. higher than February 2023; on the other hand, the occupancy rate has decreased 0.1 p.p. in the last year, reaching 55.4% for February 2024. The global participation rate varied from 0 p.p. and stood at 63.8% in February 2024. The above is a good indicator of the stability of the labor market; in February 2024, unemployment remained similar to the same month of the previous year.
Source: Large Integrated Household Survey - (DANE), January 2024
For Bogotá and its metropolitan area, the unemployment rate was 11.4% for the moving quarter Dec 23 - Feb 24, a figure identical to the 11.4% of the national total for the same period. For the same moving quarter, the capital had an occupancy rate of 62.2%, 5.8 p.p. above the national occupancy for the same quarter, which stood at 56.4%. The data shows that more people of working age are participating in the labor market in the capital (70.3%) than in the country (63.6%).
The number of employed grew by 260,000 from February 2023 to February 2024, likewise the number of unemployed grew 4.3%, which means 123,000 more in a non-employed condition (previously, called “unoccupied").
5. EVOLUTION OF FOREIGN TRADE EXPORTS
In February 2024, Colombia experienced a decrease in its exports of 10.1% compared to the same month of the previous year, Bogotá showed a growth of 19.7%, and Cundinamarca also recorded a growth of 5.9%.
In February 2024, compared to the previous month, Colombia had exports worth $3.8 billion FOB dollars. Bogotá, for its part, maintained positive growth, reaching $384.3 million FOB dollars for that month. Finally, Cundinamarca experienced growth in its exports, reaching $267.4 million.
Total exports from the Bogotá-Cundinamarca region reached a total of $651.7 million FOB dollars. The United States stood out as the main export destination, with a total of $280 million FOB dollars, which is equivalent to 41.3% of the general total. Ecuador ranked second on the list of export destinations with $46 million FOB dollars, representing 6.8% of the total, while Brazil came in third place with $41 million FOB dollars, and a share of 6.0 %. Peru and Mexico also stood out as relevant destinations with $34 million (5.0%), and $27 million (4.0%) respectively. China contributed $24 million (3.6%), and the
Netherlands contributed $22 million (3.3%); Japan, Canada and Venezuela contributed $18 million (2.7%), $16 million (2.4%) and $15 million (2.2%), respectively, to the region's exports.
Exports to other countries, grouped under "Other Countries", totaled $155 million FOB dollars, and 22.8% of the overall total, a significant contribution in terms of share in the month of February 2024.
Source: DANE, International trade.
In summary, Bogotá-Cundinamarca exports in February 2024 continued to be focused mainly on the United States, followed by Ecuador. The other main Latin American destinations are Peru, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela, which also played an important role in the February 2024 exports total.
IMPORTS
In February 2024, Colombia's total imports reached $4.821 billion CIF, experiencing a decrease of 4.7% compared to February 2023. Similarly, Bogotá showed a decrease in its imports of 3.5%
compared to the same month of the previous year, reaching $2.328 billion CIF in February 2024. However, Bogotá's share in national imports decreased from 49.6% in February 2023 to 48.3% in February 2024.
The Bogotá-Cundinamarca region recorded imports worth $2.729 billion CIF in February 2024, representing a decrease of 6.7% compared to the same month of the previous year. This region's share in national imports decreased from 57.8% in February 2023 to 56.6% in February 2024.
The main trading partners of the region were China and the United States. China led with $690 million CIF, representing 25.3% of the total, followed by the United States, which contributed $545 million CIF, representing 20.0% of the total. These two countries account for almost half of all imports into the region (45.3%).
Demás 27.4%
Italia 2.2%
Japón 2.2%
Nigeria 2.3%
Francia 3.5%
Países Bajos 4.1%
Alemania 4.8%
Estados
México 8.2%
Source: DANE, Imports
Mexico, with $224 million CIF, ranked third in importance, contributing 8.2% of the total. Germany and the Netherlands also played a significant role, contributing $132 million (4.8%) and $112 million (4.1%)
respectively. France and Nigeria reached $94 and $64 million CIF respectively, while Japan and Italy presented contributions of $61 and $60 million CIF.
Finally, "Other countries" contributed $747 million CIF, representing 27.4% of the total imports of the region, highlighting the diversity of import origins beyond the mentioned main partners.
6. FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
According to the statistics of the Exchange Balance of Banco de la República, last January the country received a total of US$ 1.27 billion, which represented an increase of 20.4% compared to the same month last year, when the reported figure was US$1.06 billion.
According to figures from the Colombian central bank, in 2023 there was the highest inflow of FDI since 2014, with a total balance of US$ 13.06 billion, that is, 16% higher than that registered in 2022, which was US$11.26 billion.
During the fourth quarter of 2023, the country received US$3.94 billion through FDI, equivalent to 3.9% of quarterly GDP. These resources were lower by US$ 146 m compared to the same period in 2022, and by US$ 68 m compared to the immediately previous quarter. For 2023, FDI totaled USD $17.18 billion (4.8% of GDP), US$ 264m higher than in 2022.
7. Sources
For more information, please visit the Observatory of the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce. https://www.ccb.org.co/observatorio
DANE. National accounts. Recovered from: https://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/estadisticas-portema/cuentas-nacionales/cuentas-nacionales-trimestrales
DANE. Labor market. Recovered from: https://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/estadisticas-por-tema/mercado-laboral/empleo-y-desempleo
Commercial Registry, BCC, 2019 - 2020 – 2021 – 2022 – 2023 - 2024. Recovered from: https://www.ccb.org.co/Inscripciones-y-renovaciones/Matricula-Mercantil/Boletines-del-RegistroMercantil
DANE. Social Pulse Survey. Recovered from: https://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/estadisticas-portema/encuesta-pulso-social
DANE, Comercio Internacional. Recovered from: https://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/estadisticaspor-tema/comercio-internacional
Banco de la República. https://www.banrep.gov.co/sites/default/files/nota_de_prensa_inversion_directa.pdf