The country's industry improvement is evident in agriculture, for example in the fruit and vegetables sector, which increased exports by 27.1 percent in the first four months of 2014 when compared to the same period last year.
Camilo Montes Pineda, general manager of the Productive Transformation Program (PTP) of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, said that, "the industry's return to positive numbers is largely due to the change in mentality and actions that entrepreneurs in each region of Colombia have had."
The manager is specifically referring to the regional bets on crops receiving support from the National Government, via the work that is articulated from the PTP.
This program's management aims at understanding what each region can cultivate depending on their potential, and then presenting the region the Government's institutional offer so they can receive real support. "It is a joint work with local authorities, trade unions, employers, Chambers of Commerce, and Regional Competitiveness Commissions, among other actors," he said.
This positive performance will consolidate as Colombia achieves specializing its production areas, for which the PTP is conducting the necessary studies in order to identify which products should be planted and in what areas, according to weather and floor conditions. This analysis will be shared with the regions, so there might be strawberry crops in the Valle del Cauca or onion crops in the Guajira in the future.
"We are no longer running everything from Bogota. We are looking at the region's needs. Leadership must come from the municipalities as is happening with the PTP," said Juan Guillermo Valencia, Secretary of Agriculture and Fisheries for the Valle del Cauca.
Source: Portafolio