Colombia Lucrative for UAE Investments

WAM Abu Dhabi: Trade exchange between the UAE and Columbia is still very low compared to the strong political ties between the two countries. Last year, they recorded US$8 million (Dh29.36 million) with expectations to increase more this year due to the operation of flights from UAE and from Bogota, Roberto Belez, ambassador of Colombia to Kuwaiti, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE, said. "The UAE will be opening an embassy in Bogota this summer as a sign of interest in Latin America and in Colombia," Belez told Gulf News in an interview.

"When I first came here to UAE, I had a meeting with His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, who told me three main points which were really important to improve our mutual relations at all levels. The first is to have an embassy, then to remove visa barriers for Emiratis and the third which we are working on right now is direct connection between our two countries to speed up movement of passengers and cargo. There are agreements signed in this regard and there will be fruitful results in the near future," the Columbian Ambassador said.

Last year, Columbia exported goods worth US$60 billion of various products agricultural such as bananas, topical fruits, coffee, sugar, coco, steel, nickel, emeralds, apparel, cold coal, copper, aluminium, oil and gas and other industries and appliances. Columbia's export destinations are the USA with US$21.9 billion, China with US$3.3 billion, Spain with US$2.9 billion and Venezuela with US$2.7 billion.

Answering a question about investments that are suitable for UAE in Columbia, Belez said his country has very lucrative opportunities in various fields, particularly in agricultural sectors including poultry, coffee, and flower production. Columbia has the third largest population in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico and has a wide spectrum of economic sectors that need further development and investments such as mining, oil, real estate, tourism, agriculture and food industries including coffee and flowers.

FDI in Columbia increased in 2012 to US$16 billion up from US$13 billion, a 23 per cent increase. We are the third country in Latin America in terms of FDI as a percentage of GDP which constitute 4 per cent, that is, $13.6 billion of the country's GDP. Belez said the UAE and the GCC countries can benefit from economies in markets which are at present growing and emerging rather than those which are facing economic problems such as the US, European and Japanese economies.

Columbia's population is 48 million and more than 30 per cent of people are of Arab descendants from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. More than 55 per cent of the population is less than 30 years old. It is the world's second most bio diverse country and is among the 12 mega diverse countries in the planet, the Columbian ambassador added.