Colombia’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry & Tourism (“MinCit”) and the ProColombia export promotion agency jointly announced January 9 a new “internationalization factory” scheme that aims to expand exports – hence boosting local employment, corporate profits, resulting tax revenues and a better national balance-of-payments situation.

According to MinCit Minister José Manuel Restrepo Abondano, “through this model, entrepreneurs can adopt and improve their management and innovation skills and identify new markets for their products.”

Companies interested in participating in the new scheme may apply at: www.fabricasdeinternacionalizacion.com.co, according to MinCit.

Following registration, “a ProColombia consultant will contact the employer and make a diagnosis of the company to find opportunities for improvement,” according to the Ministry.

“With the accompaniment of ProColombia a work plan will be built, together with the company. The [product and] service lines to be developed will be selected.

“The ProColombia advisor will continually evaluate the evolution of the company to define if it requires an additional service line and/or participate in the promotional activities that ProColombia has designed.”

Qualifying participants must be “legally constituted companies” with a “defined good or service” that “produce or sell Colombian products” and are in certain industrial categories including agriculture, food, textiles and clothing, metalworking, chemicals, life-sciences and high-tech “industry 4.0” sectors, according to MinCit.