Internationalization and Local Development: An Approach to the Colombian Case

Abstract

This paper shows how, with the start the new millennium, three public entities have led the internationalization and local development processes in Colombia: the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Proexport and Colciencias; in the private sector, mainly the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá. The foreign trade policy answers to the development model established in the “Change to build peace” National Plan, in which an aggressive strategy of export growth was defined as a generator of employment and foreign exchange. This strategy was formulated in the Strategic Export Plan, as the result of a process of concentration and commitment of the foreign trade system and all public entities related to the public and private sectors. This is how a state policy was built in the face of internationalization, with commitments to action by the national and regional government, as well as the business sector. The Strategic Export Plan was the guide used by the entities from the trade sector, containing an overview of the Colombian export activity for the decade of 1999-2009.