Colombia : Inputs for Sub-Regional Competitiveness Policies

In recent years, the Government of Colombia (GoC) has placed a high priority on competitiveness. Increasing globalization trends and Colombia's decision to increase trade integration, with the negotiation of a free trade agreement (FTA) with t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: World Bank
Format: Other Infrastructure Study
Language:English
en_US
Published: Washington, DC 2012
Subjects:
AIR
GDP
ICT
R&D
TAX
WTO
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/06/9757560/colombia-inputs-sub-regional-competitiveness-policies
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8079
Description
Summary:In recent years, the Government of Colombia (GoC) has placed a high priority on competitiveness. Increasing globalization trends and Colombia's decision to increase trade integration, with the negotiation of a free trade agreement (FTA) with the US, has led the government to focus on a complementary agenda to boost competitiveness in order to reap the benefits of increased trade integration. A bottom-up process of consultation, known as the Domestic Agenda, was launched with the aims of identifying key constraints at the local and sector levels and developing a set of competitiveness-oriented measures. This study aims at helping the GoC to fine-tune the mix of policies and actions to assist its regions in meeting development challenges and grasping opportunities from trade liberalization. Defining competitiveness as policies and actions to increase total factor productivity (TFP), this report seeks to provide inputs for the establishment of a strategy for sub regional competitiveness and growth through both examining the recent literature on the main instruments directed towards these objectives and evaluating sub-regional endowments, capacity, productive structure and the determinants of productivity levels in selected regions of Colombia. Three key areas for competitiveness are further explored: (a) overall investment climate; (b) infrastructure and logistics; and (c) human capital and innovation.