-- Located in South America, Colombia offers great business opportunities, and 
with more than 11 million inhabitants, Bogota, its capital city owes a 
strategic location, highly skilled, talented, and competitive workforce.

-- Asian companies are very interested in Bogota-Region, especially for the 
development of professional services outsourcing projects.

-- In the last decade, Bogota-region has received 115 new and expansion FDI 
projects from Asia Pacific, valued at USD 1,313 million.

Representatives of Invest in Bogota, the Bogota investment attraction agency 
are carrying out a promotion agenda in the Philippines, with the aim of 
promoting the city among BPO companies with expansion interests in Latin 
America for their nearshore operations in English and Spanish.

During its foray into the Asian country, the promotional team has held meetings 
with key stakeholders, evaluated the roadmap of the BPO sector there, and 
learned about the challenges and needs that companies in that country have for 
their development. Isabella Munoz, executive director of Invest in Bogota, 
indicates that "the experience of the Philippines provides us with relevant 
insights as a country and as a promotion agency, to identify where we want (and 
should) go in our exercise of intelligent specialization."

"Bogota-Region is clear about its opportunity to strengthen business with Asia. 
In the last decade, it has received from Asia Pacific 115 new and expansion 
foreign direct investment projects, valued at USD 1,313 million and which have 
generated more than 8,300 jobs. These represent 8.7% of the total projects that 
have been carried out in the Bogota-Region", adds Munoz.

The availability, quality and cost of labor, advances in terms of bilingualism 
and the strategic location have contributed to investors perceiving the region 
as an ideal destination for their service activities. 

Investments from Asia Pacific  
The city region concentrates 66.1% of the investment projects that Colombia has 
received from Asia Pacific. The corporate services sector was one with the 
largest number of Asia Pacific projects carried out in the Bogota Region, 
concentrating 13.9%. It is a sector with great capacity to generate employment, 
it concentrated 24.1% of the jobs generated by FDI from this eastern region.  

Apart from corporate services, other relevant sectors in attracting FDI from 
Asia Pacific are pharmaceuticals (12.2%), consumer products (11.3%), 
communications (9.6%), software and IT services (9, 6%), automotive (7.8%), 
financial services (6.1%) and others (29.6%). 

China is the main Asian investor in the Bogota-Region, with 32.2% of the 
projects. Japan (20.9%), India (16.5%), Australia (11.3%) and Korea (10.4%) 
also stand out.

Investments in BPO
Colombia and, above all, Bogota are important players in the global BPO 
industry. The country is the first destination in the region for the 
development of BPO operations according to the Offshore BPO Confidence Index 
2021, and the third BPO market in Latin America (13th worldwide) according to 
the Global Services Location Index 2021 report.

During the last five years, the sector in Colombia achieved an average annual 
growth of 16%, standing out as the fastest growing in the region. The 
attributes that Bogota has for the provision of professional services make it 
the main BPO and KPO cluster in Colombia, with 67% of the country's income, 70% 
of operations and 69% of employment generated by this industry.

SOURCE  Invest In Bogota

CONTACT:  Lorena Rodriguez, Marketing and Communications Officer, E-mail: 
lrodriguez@investinbogota.org