The elected president Gustavo Petro and his ministerial cabinet will receive foreign trade with positive accounts, in most cases, and with a window of challenges and opportunities to be able to exploit the potential of the sector.
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In line with what was stated by the former presidential candidate of the Historical Pact, Some free trade agreements will be reviewed and a greater role for non-traditional sectors, such as oil, will be sought.
In fact, the future Minister of Finance of the Petro Government, José Antonio Ocampo, drew a little more detail about the plans from next August 7. “I think the most critical issue is export diversification, and for that, protection is not very useful, what needs to be done are more active production policies for the agricultural, industrial and service sectors,” Ocampo said in an interview for El Tiempo. .
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In line with the upcoming challenges of the president-elect, Portafolio spoke with export associations and study centers, which drew up a roadmap on the opportunities that the sector has.
INCREASE SALES
Making the country’s foreign sales grow is an objective on which the entities consulted by this newspaper agree and to achieve it they propose several ways.
From Analdex, they comment that Colombia is characterized by a low level of integration into international markets, being the third most closed in Latin America, behind Brazil and Argentina.
For this situation to change, “a State policy on foreign trade is required that has a roadmap that allows the generation of a favorable environment from the regulatory point of view and that, supported by technology, facilitates the procedures of operations.”
Currently, to carry out an export process a company takes, on average, 6.25 days, when in Panama it is done in 1 day or in Peru, with 2 days.
On the other hand, from the Fitac and the International Trade Observatory (OBCI) of the Universidad del Norte, they agree that it should take more advantage of the current free trade agreements.
“It is recommended to take advantage of existing ProColombia studies and experiences of current FTAs where the growth potential of service exports is evident through the positioning of sectors such as health, outsourcing of technological services and clothing design,” said Mario de la Puente, director of the OBCI.
But not only will increasing exports be a challenge or an opportunity for the next government, it will also be diversifying it.
For Fitac, this diversification focuses on three important points: technology, human capital and the business fabric. In the first place, in technology, the institution says that “it is crucial” that all the links in the chains have the technology that meets the needs of their sector, with which they can later “satisfy the demand of foreign markets.”
Regarding human capital, the organization points out that it is “necessary” for it to be trained and that it “manages to identify the needs that arise in global markets” thus developing business opportunities and creating a “mentality oriented towards the export of services ”.
In a third point, in the business fabric, Fitac, with which the other respondents agree, points out that “existing companies need to be strengthened, improving processes and planting an export culture in them.” In addition, they advocate the creation of companies with a mentality of creating products or services that are not only in demand in the country but also internationally.
DIGITAL DIVIDE
One of the consequences of the covid-19 pandemic was the acceleration of digitalization in many aspects, where foreign trade was not far behind either, however, the experts consulted agree, that there is still a long way to go.
The Fitac proposes a State policy aimed at digitizing processes that is complemented with credits for firms that cannot pay it. Meanwhile, Analdex considers promoting foreign investment in key sectors to accelerate this digitization.
ROBERTO CASAS LUGO
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