Carolina Rosales Gonzalez
Executive Director
Invest in Cartagena and Bolivar
Cartagena, Colombia
crosales@investincartagena.com
LATAM FDI: Hello. Welcome to this episode of the LATAM FDI podcast. Today, we have Carolina Rosales-González with us. Carolina is the executive director of an organization in Cartagena, Colombia, called Invest in Cartagena and Bolivar. Welcome Carolina. Please tell the audience a little bit about yourself and your organization.
Carolina Rosales-González: Thank you very much, Steven, for having me. As you were saying, my name is Carolina Rosales. I’m the Executive Director of Invest in Cartagena and Bolívar, the local Investment Promotion Agency of a beautiful region on Colombia’s Caribbean Coast. It’s been a year since I assumed the position. Believe me, Steven, working for a city and an area that is full of opportunities and with this enormous potential, is very gratifying. I’m sure we will talk about the opportunities to invest in Cartagena and Bolivar through this podcast. It is a pleasure. I’m thrilled to be here. I expect to give you all the highlights needed to invest in Cartagena and Bolivar. So, thank you very much for having me. Thank you very much for this opportunity to promote our territory.
LATAM FDI: Well, it’s a pleasure to have you here. Your region is fascinating, and I’m sure it’s beautiful there in Cartagena, being in the Caribbean. That being the case, how does its position in the Caribbean affect foreign direct investment that arrives in your region? And how do these activities contribute to the growth and development of investment in Cartagena and Bolivar?
Carolina Rosales-González: Well, I would like to give you a context about the Colombia FDI flows, and then we can get a more profound overview of investment in Cartagena and Bolivar. And, of course, we used the strategy to increase the number of investment projects in our territory. So, first of all, in Colombia, FDI flow has grown in the last eight years. This is very positive for our country compared to other situations in Latin America and worldwide. The main sectors where FDI has been focused in Colombia are financial business services, the oil and gas sector, which makes regarding our offer in Colombia, and then the transport, restoration, and communications sector, half the 10% of the share of the total of the FDI flows receiving in Colombia the past years. Regarding investment in Cartagena and Bolivar, according to the data report by Invest in Cartagena, the sector’s investment interest for the last years has been on infrastructure, followed by renewable energies, and 50% of the total has focused on software and IT services. The reason for the data is significantly related, Steve, and this information drives how we run the investment strategy from the agency’s perspective.
As you said, Cartagena and Bolivar are strategically located on the Caribbean Sea. So this means that Cartagena and Bolivar have fluid, maritime, and river connectivity. We are just three days, for example, by boat from the Coast of Florida and five days from the East Coast of the United States, also our leading commercial partner. We are only a two-hour flight from Florida and one hour or maybe less to Panama. That is 45 minutes, if I’m not wrong. And we are only 265 nautical miles from the Panama Canal. For that reason, Cartagena and Bolivar are the most connected cities on the Colombian Caribbean Coast. Have you been to Cartagena before?
LATAM FDI: Unfortunately, I’ve never been to Cartagena.
Carolina Rosales-González: You have to. Cartagena and Bolivar are regions full of natural attractions. We have a natural bay, for example, and we have an authentic and magnificent historic center that anyone must have the opportunity to come to visit. We are the jewel of the crown in the tours offered in Colombia. Cartagena is a World Heritage site that was declared by UNESCO. We also have two additional World Heritage locations in the Department of Bolivar. They are Mompós, and Palenque. Those comparative advantages are related to our area, and I will mention many other reasons. From the agency Invest in Cartagena and Bolivar, we have prioritized seven sectors in which Cartagena and Bolivar represent an investment opportunity. The leading sectors in our investment include opportunities in terms of infrastructure; Cartagena, for example, is the first leisure and lovely destination in Colombia. We have a consolidated hospitality investment in Cartagena and Bolivar. We have important brands such as Accord, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, etc. So, indeed, Cartagena is the Jewel of the Crown. You have to visit one day. If you are in the United States, you are very close, as I said before. Another thing important about Cartagena’s investment opportunities related to our location is that Cartagena is the most efficient port area in the Caribbean.
We have sixteen different terminals with different vocations, but one of those terminals owned by Group Port of Cartagena has been working as the third most efficient port in the world. So, it is essential to highlight Cartagena’s logistic platform with this natural advantage. Also, we have to start expanding our local airport. And there is also a new airport project that will have all of our capacity now. It will also be the brand new cargo airport on the Caribbean Coast. This is why Cartagena is consolidating itself as an export platform for the manufacturing industry and a logistics hub. Regarding the manufacturing sector, I don’t know if you know about that, but we host the most critical and sophisticated refinery in Latin America. Have you heard about it?
LATAM FDI: No, I wasn’t aware of that.
Carolina Rosales-González: Okay. We have the most sophisticated refinery. And since then, we have developed a strong value chain with well-known international chemical brands. We are the most vital city in Colombia in the petrochemical sector. We have brands, for example, like Dow, Axalta, Yara, and Pasco Wave in Cabo. Cartagena and Bolivar are the cities after Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, with the country’s most free trade zones. You know that a free trade zone is a mechanism we use to attract investment in Cartagena and Bolivar. All those things improve critical manufacturing processes, such as construction materials, metalwork, and the working industry that uses our region to reach new international markets. So this is another reason why Cartagena has all the potential to attract new investment in Cartagena and Bolivar. In addition, this is very particular to our city; the country’s essential shipyards are located in Cartagena, of course. It is related to our location. The data shows that 85% of the naval repair workshops nationwide are focused on the Department of Bolivar. So, this is Cartagena, half a very Navy history or past. So, we developed the city’s past and built this strong shipyard industry.
We are very focused on or specialize in constructing Navy ships for the Colombian government and other international governments. Do you have any questions about why you have to choose to invest in Cartagena, Bolivar, and all the sectors I have mentioned?
LATAM FDI: Well, one of the first things that people ask about a location, besides the significant economic activities, is what educational infrastructure a place like Cartagena and Bolivar has. How does Cartagena and Bolivar support workforce development? Can you give us a little idea of how that happens?
Carolina Rosales-González: Yes. I will finish the idea if you want because I have mentioned two promising and trending sectors leading our investment in Cartagena and Bolivar: the IT industry and the energy transition. It would be best if you could talk about our skill labor because it’s very related. I’m going to finish this idea, and then I’m going to answer your new question. The IT industry is significant. We have another natural advantage: Cartagena has five transoceanic cables that allow an efficient wireless connection to the Internet. And about skilled labor, the city can now have a bit of difficulty compared to other important cities in Colombia or worldwide. Concerning energy transition, Cartagena is one of the four cities with the highest operational capacity and production of renewable energy. In the north of the Department, we also have the advantage, like in La Guajira, of having significant potential to generate wind energy. Cartagena also has two green hydrogen pilot plants in Colombia. So, the previous strategy I mentioned to invest in Cartagena and Bolivar contributes to our economic development in diverse ways, especially in employment generation.
So that’s why I wanted to finish that idea: attaching the employment generation to our education offer is essential. Also, the projects in Cartagena and Bolivar often focus on employment and opportunity generation in the area of influence where they develop. This also positively impacts the communities and Cartagena and Bolivar society. So that is important to mention. On the other hand, we are looking at those projects to invest in Cartagena and Bolivar; those projects integrate very, very accurately into the local productive chain so that the local providers can see the highest quality standard to meet the international companies’ demand. Those things prepare our skills, our specialty, and our educational offer. An important thing you must know about the Cartagena workforce is that according to the Ministry of National Education data, the labor force in Cartagena is mainly condensed at the university level. A little more of the 50 % are at the university level, all the way by technological level, and then we have the master’s degree level with the total participation on this part. The gender level is fundamental, and I like to mention it a lot because the gender level, 56 %, sorry, of the graduates of Cartagena and Bolivia are women, and the remaining percent are men.
Females dominate the workforce in Cartagena and Bolivar, and the principal areas of knowledge focus on economic science and urban engineering. This takes excellent value because it’s very focused on Cartagena’s industrial vocation, especially in sectors where growth and development have occurred—for example, renewable energy, the Navy, training, and the IT industries. So, as you can see, the workforce is very prepared to meet the needs of companies that seek to invest in Cartagena and Bolivar.
LATAM FDI: Can you provide examples of foreign companies that have chosen to invest in Cartagena y Bolivar? And what factors influence their decisions? What benefits have they derived from operating in the region?
Carolina Rosales-González: The benefits: Maybe we can talk a little bit later about the actions that our local governments are taking to improve the relocalization of companies because Cartagena and Bolívar have launched a tax incentive policy so we can talk about that before. But I don’t know if you want to hear about our natural advantage, and then we can discuss the tax incentive programs. Let me know, please.
LATAM FDI: That’d be great.
Carolina Rosales-González: Okay, so I think one of the main reasons why an investor could choose to invest in Cartagena and Bolivar is because our strategic location, as I was saying, Cartagena and Bolivar, is recognized by the container port performance index as the third more efficient port in the world. We can connect to more than 140 countries. We can reach more than 840 ports around the world. For any company that may be looking for an export platform or a site that could allow us to get another Cartagena, it is the best option for them in Latin America. Also, we were talking about skilled labor. There is a fact I like to mention a lot. All the investors must consider that because Colombians, not only Cartagena but also the Colombian workforce, are very special. A recent study has concluded that Colombian workers are satisfied with their work lives.
LATAM FDI: Maybe you could fill us in on what that means.
Carolina Rosales-González: Okay. It is a study that measures people’s happiness levels at work. In Colombia, 88% of the employees declare they are happy at work. Beyond the remuneration, they value the sense of belonging and the emotional side of employment. This is a crucial key driver in improving investment in Cartagena and Bolivar. For me, it’s valuable because you can have the people, but if they are not motivated, your project may not work. This is an essential fact about our happiness at work, not only in Cartagena and Bolívar but in Colombia.
LATAM FDI: How would you characterize issues beyond human resources and the industries in Cartegena and Bolivar? What about the region’s transportation, logistics, and connectivity infrastructure? How does it facilitate business operations, and how does it act to impact the companies that invest in Cartagena and Bolivar?
Carolina Rosales-González: As I was saying, Steven, we have the most efficient port in Colombia. We have the third most efficient port in the world. We also have a natural bay with, I don’t know, sixteen different terminals with various locations to move cargo. We have many free trade zones that, of course, are facilities to look for a site to operate with tax incentives and an excellent logistic infrastructure. We will soon have a brand new airport, allowing Cartagena to have the intermodal logistics. Yes, the intermodal logistics, because we are experienced in the maritime sector, but we must develop expertise in air cargo. This new airport will allow us to move oversized cargo through the sea and develop new sophisticated industries that use less volume to reach another market.
LATAM FDI: The final question I’d like to ask is, what has the government of Cartagena and Bolivar done in terms of initiatives and policies to support both foreign and domestic investors, and how effective have they been in creating a favorable business climate?
Carolina Rosales-González: Okay. Regarding the business climate, Steven, progress has been made for companies that invest in Cartagena and Bolivar in simplifying and making efficient the procedures that all the investors must perform when landing their operations in our territory. The achievement that we can stand out in this company is creating and implementing a business platform, a one-stop window called VUE, or Ventanilla Unica Empresarial. This mechanism allows all investors to conduct their procedures, consult benefits, news, and more about our city’s business creation. Also, we developed a technological tool, a one-stop window, but for the construction sector. So, this technological platform allows, for example, an investor to know the entities of control and the steps they have to take to fill out all the requirements on some services that, for example, you have to do to build a hotel or to create a property. That technological advantage or development makes the information and guidance an investor needs when arriving to invest in Cartagena and Bolivar easier. Fortunately, we can achieve that. Another significant technological development is the investor information system we developed with Invest in Cartagena and the mayor’s office.
The platform allows all the investors that wish to establish in our city to have a guide that completes step by step the regulation, the needs of business creation, all the requirements for it, for example, obtained permits, and all the things that you have to do to form an establishment here in Cartagena. Another important thing I mentioned before is Bolivar, as a department, launching nine municipalities of the Department, local incentives related to exemption on local industry and comfort tax, and the unified property tax. So, in the Department of Bolivar, we have forty-six municipalities, and in nine municipalities, we have those incentives. Recently, the mayor’s office presented a project also to improve the relocalization of companies seeking to invest in Cartagena and Bolivar, giving the same time tax exemptions on industry and commerce tax, and the unified property tax, and urban tax to those companies that are located in Cartagena, generate local employment, and do essential amounts of investment in our city. So now we are waiting for its approval.
LATAM FDI: Well, we got to the point where, in a very short period, we’ve covered many areas about investing in Cartagena and Bolivar. Our experience is that listeners to our podcast often have follow-up questions after hearing the information our speakers have presented. We like to create an environment where our listeners can converse with our presenters. That being said, is there any way that anyone who has a question about what you’ve said and perhaps a desire to invest in Cartagena and Bolivar, is there any way they can contact you?
Carolina Rosales-González: Yes, of course. Indeed, we have our social media contacts, but I don’t know if I can write you down my email or put it anywhere visible on the podcast platform, my contact email, or my number. So, anyone with a question interested in Cartagena would be received with the greatest happiness from me and my team. We hope that that occurs. We hope all the highlights we provide here give all the investors a valuable alternative to invest in Cartagena and Bolivar. We can continue generating value from the agency and betting on our region’s and country’s growth. For the entire audience, Steven, it is, please, a big greeting. If you are concerned or interested, please get in touch with us at this email: crosales@investincartagena.com. This is my personal. I will be very attentive to any request, and our agency will be very happy to support you and make your decision to invest in Cartagena and Bolivar easier, and, of course, help you achieve your business goals.
LATAM FDI: Okay. Typically, we’ll do it in the transcript section of the podcast; if it’s okay with you, I’ll put your name and make it a link to your LinkedIn page so that people will have it to you. I’ll provide the email address you mentioned and a link to your website so that anybody with any questions can go straight to you and get the answer.
Carolina Rosales-González: That would be great.LATAM FDI: Well, thank you for joining me today. I appreciate it. I enjoyed our conversation, and I hope you have an excellent rest of the day.
Carolina Rosales-González: Thank you very much, Steven, for the time, for the generosity, and for the opportunity for this space to present the Cartagena and Bolivar potential. We hope everything we said in this post is helpful to the investors. And we are very attentive to anything that you may need. Cartagena is waiting for you. Cartagena and Bolivar are waiting for you. So thank you. Thank you very much. Have a good day, too. Thank you. Bye-bye.