Abu Dhabi: There are great opportunities in Colombia which require investments in various fields particularly in energy, tourism, aviation, mining, real estate and agriculture, Roberto Belez, ambassador of Colombia to Kuwaiti, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE, told Gulf News in an interview.
What is the trade exchange between the UAE and Colombia?
Trade exchange is still very low compared to our strong political ties. Last year, there recorded $8 million (Dh29.36 million) with expectation to increase more this year due to the operation of flights from UAE and from Bogota.
What were your exports in 2012? Who were your major trade partners?
Last year, we exported goods worth $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. Our export destinations are the USA with $21.9 billion, China with $3.3 billion, Spain with $2.9 billion and Venezuela with $2.7 billion.
Our imports amounted to 58.6 billion from the USA with $14 billion, China with $9.5 billion, Mexico with $6.3 billion and Brazil with $2.7 billion. Our main imports are machinery and transport equipment as well as manufactured products.
What investments are suitable for UAE in your country?
We have very lucrative opportunities in various fields, particularly in agricultural sectors including poultry, coffee, and flowers.
What are the major investment opportunities that seek investments?
We are the third largest population in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico and we have 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.
What is your production of coffee?
We are the third coffee producer in the world after Brazil and Vietnam. About 20 per cent of our people live on coffee business as more than 500,000 grow coffee and more than 5 million work in the production chain until it reaches customers. In 2012 the production of coffee amounted to 10.5 million bags (each bag weighs 60 kilogrammes).
Colombia is the famous for its flower production, what is the volume of production?
We are the second world flower producer after Holland. We sold $1 billion flowers in 2012 worldwide and this business is increasing further and booming by benefitting from our tropical weather which is suitable for such business.
What are the main energy sources in your country?
We have biofuel, ethanol, cold coal which is used in heavy industries like iron, steel and aluminium to make these materials stronger. Our oil production was 300,00 in the past and currently we produce 1 million barrels per day, 70 per cent of which is exported to the USA.
Colombia has been posted on the world map for potable water, how true is that?
That is totally true. With a population of 48 million and an area of 1,141,748 square kilometres, we are amongst the top 6 nations. The other countries are Canada, Brazil, China, Russia and South Africa. These countries have more than 60 per cent of drinkable water reserves worldwide.
What was the Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in 2012?
FDI increased in 2012 to $16 billion up from $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. 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. There is great potential in the emerging economics as economic growth is expected to be more than 6 per cent. Any investor can benefit from the facilities extended to investors, making use of the fall of inflation rates at 2.4 per cent, the unemployment rate declining to 9.2 per cent and debt ratios remaining low. Spillovers from the global turmoil and economic problems have been limited so far on our country. Our banking system is resilient.
What is the population of Colombia and how does the mix gives impetus to your economy?
Our population is 48 million and more than 30 per cent of them 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.
There is a talk about opening a UAE embassy in Colombia, is that true?
Well, that is right, the UAE will be opening an embassy in Bogota this summer as a sign of interest in Latin America and in Colombia. When I first came here to UAE, I had a meeting with General Shaikh Mohammad 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.
