Colombia’s ProColombia And Jamaica’s JAMPRO Reach Bilateral Trade Promotion Agreement

After working together for more than a year to negotiate a memorandum of understanding (MOU), The investment promotion agencies of Jamaica and Colombia, JAMPRO and ProColombia, respectively, have reached an agreement to promote trade and foreign direct investment between the two Caribbean nations. This follows a revision of ProColombia’s mandate to promote foreign investment from Colombian firms, from being previously an export-only organization.

Above Photo: Shullette Cox, Vice President of Corporate Development & Competitiveness, JAMPRO (left), Carlos Gonzalez, Executive Director of ProColombia Caribe (center) and Solangel Ortiz Mejia, Minister Counselor and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of the Republic of Colombia (right) share a conversation at the MOU signing between Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) and ProColombia.

This will not be the first time that JAMPRO has facilitated investment from Colombia, as the agency facilitated Grupo Terranum’s Decameron’s hospitality investment in the island country. This aligns with JAMPRO’s strategy of maintaining strong trade ties with North America and Europe, while expanding commerce between Jamaica and Latin America.

“Colombia is one of Jamaica’s long standing trade and investment partners, and JAMPRO recognizes this and sees the need for a serious partnership with ProColombia to build on our countries’ already existing relationship.  The MOU creates a framework that will guide our future collaborations in rapidly developing sectors such as BPO and Health and Wellness Tourism and will also facilitate more cooperation between both agencies,” said Diane Edwards, the President of JAMPRO.

Points of collaboration between JAMPRO and ProColombia:

1. Joint partnerships and opportunities for the Health and Wellness Sector in Jamaica. Using Colombia as a bench mark for development of Health and wellness sector.
2. Tourism- Jamaica to Exchange ideas with Colombia for development of Colombian Tourist industry.
3. Agriculture and Agro-processing – partnership in producing value-added products.
4. Information, Communication and Technology – Jamaica for English language customer service support.
5. Mining – the bauxite and alumina industry, and other areas of mining.

The memorandum will serve to guide collaboration between the two agencies with the goal of increasing bilateral commerce and collaboration. They are now actively seeking opportunities in health and wellness, BPO, hospitality and resort development, and logistics.