BOGOTÁ, Colombia – 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 Muñoz, 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 percent of the total projects that have been carried out in the Bogota-Region,” adds Muñoz.
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 percent 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 Bogotá Region, concentrating 13.9 percent. It is a sector with great capacity to generate employment, it concentrated 24.1 percent 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 percent 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, Bogotá 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 percent, 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 percent of the country’s income, 70 percent of operations and 69 percent of employment generated by this industry.
