During the last year, through the Agency for Cooperation and Investment of Medellin and the Metropolitan Area -ACI Medellin-, the city reported a total of 20 foreign investment projects, which represented close to USD $ 148 million and 3,500 new jobs generated, thanks to the previous year’s efforts to attract resources from abroad.
20 international companies set up in the capital of Antioquia to expand their operations, including Farmatodo, Dollarcity, Positive Thinking, Concentrix, Sana Commerce, Fresh Works, Rootstrap, Rush and Genius Sport.
For the director of Local and International Relations of ACI Medellin, Jonathan Ballesteros, “2022 was a year in which investment and cooperation went from being an important issue to become fundamental allies for the development of the city. I must highlight that more than 500 delegates from countries such as Spain, Denmark, Argentina, Brazil, United Kingdom, United States, France and Belgium, among many others, have come to Medellín to learn first-hand about the projects that are transforming us into an Ecocity and a Software Valley, in order to replicate them in their territories.”
In the year 2022, ACI Medellin celebrated 20 years of existence in which USD $ 3.4 billion in investment have been managed, with more than 200 companies installed and close to 25. Likewise, in international cooperation, it has managed, in these two decades, more than USD $ 115 million in projects such as CITRA (Integrated Transportation Center), which was recently completed and left the city a modern information system that allows improving mobility, thanks to an agreement with South Korea, which became the largest cooperation project, with USD $ 12 million.
Ambassadors, ministers and more than 500 delegates from different parts of the world visited the city projects and opened up possibilities for investment and cooperation.
The manager of the Medellin branch of Lean Solutions Group, William Garrido, stated that “the growth of the company in Medellin has been quite accelerated, surpassing the barrier of 200 employees before the first year and a projection for mid-2023 to occupy 350 or 360. We have every confidence to occupy the position of the best city for the company in the whole country”.
One of the highlights of this year is the technical cooperation announced by the C40 Network for the development of Parques del Río Norte, a project that will change the face of the Popular and Santa Cruz districts and will benefit more than 390,000 people.
This year, Mayor Daniel Quintero Calle participated in the world forum of C40 mayors in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in which he gave a message to the world to stop the production of gasoline cars from 2035, a signal that was very well received at the event.
The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with cities such as Buenos Aires, Barcelona and Recife will increase the exchange of best practices and technical cooperation and investment between these territories and Medellin.
In national and international technical and financial cooperation, USD $ 7.4 million were reported.
As a result of this work with cities around the world, ten “Why Medellin” events were held this year with businessmen from Spain, Dubai, Chile, Mexico, Brazil and the United States, in which the reasons why the capital of Antioquia is a safe and reliable destination for companies from other countries were made known.
Barcelona continues to be Medellín’s sister city. An example of this is the Barcelona Solidaria program, which supported 13 projects with close to 1.1 million euros, including Rutas de Siembra, executed in partnership with Antioqueños por el Mundo and Comfenalco, a project that serves farmers in the Santa Elena district.
The entity’s management through international relations has a direct impact on development, as evidenced by the Return on Investment (ROI) indicator, which shows that for every peso that enters the ACI Medellin budget, COP $ 14 is managed in cooperation and COP $ 186 in investment, in addition to the results that are not accounted for in financial resources, but in job creation, for example.
The agency’s work for the arrival of new cooperation and investment projects begins with the identification of countries, companies, public or private entities, international networks, among others, that are interested in working with Medellín or investors seeking to settle in the territory.
Once the investment or cooperation project is installed, the resources are used to build the necessary infrastructure for its operation, hiring personnel and the arrival of people from other countries who will come to live alone or with their families, which stimulates tourism, housing, education, transportation and food, among others.