Characterization of foreign direct investment in Colombia (fdi): Economic activities other than mining and oil

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La serie Borradores de Economía es una publicación de la Subgerencia de Estudios Económicos del Banco de la República. Los trabajos son de carácter provisional, las opiniones y posibles errores son responsabilidad exclusiva del autor y sus contenidos no comprometen al Banco de la República ni a su Junta Directiva.

Autor o Editor
Adrián Martínez-Osorio
Enrique Montes-Uribe
Iader Giraldo
Juan Camilo Santos-Peña

The series Borradores de Economía (Working Papers on Economics) contributes to the dissemination and promotion of the work by researchers from the institution. On multiple occasions, these works have been the result of collaborative work with individuals from other national or international institutions. This series is indexed at Research Papers in Economics (RePEc). The opinions contained in this document are the sole responsibility of the author and do not commit Banco de la República or its Board of Directors.

Fecha de publicación

Abstract

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been Colombia's largest external financing source for companies. This paper aims to characterize FDI in sectors other than mining and oil and the companies receiving this type of investment in Colombia between 2000 and 2020, when 59% of the accumulated flow of FDI arrived in these sectors. The results show that the frequency with which these firms receive resources through FDI is between 1 and 3 years. Their participation in foreign trade is more linked to imports than exports. The last could be inferred that the objective of these investments is more to supply goods and services to the local market than to scale production to co-opt regional or global markets. A large percentage of the value of FDI in these sectors is channeled primarily by large companies. Likewise, the largest firms determine each subsector's financial performance, revealing a high concentration of production in these specific activities.