What is next for Colombia in economic matters? This is what the experts say

Portafolio, together with Uniandinos, an association of graduates of the Universidad de los Andes, held the event ‘Economic prospects 2023: what’s next for Colombia?‘, focused on the projection of the sector, including entrepreneurship, market expectations and productive bets for the region and the country.

(Banks in Colombia will have immediate transfers in 2023: ACH).

The event was attended by Brayan Cepeda, entrepreneurship coordinator at Uniandinos, Francisco Miranda, director of Portfolio, Jorge Restrepo, professor of economics at the Javeriana University, and Faihan Al Fayez, vice president of corporate affairs at WOM Colombia.

To begin, Brayan Cepeda made a reflection on the trends in the entrepreneurship sector. “In 2023, start-ups will be seen, mainly, with sustainable development models, mobile commerce, by subscription, gig economy, social commerce, beacon technology, 4.0 industries, hyperlocalized businesses, that prioritize the metaverse and social responsibility“, he pointed.

Likewise, Cepeda spoke about what entrepreneurs should do to have better economic prospects. “The first thing is to see changes and challenges as an opportunity, face problems with curiosity to leverage creativity in business and, thirdly, use the word ‘still’ because every day is learning.”

(Colombia’s GDP grew 7% in the third quarter of 2022).

The Portfolio Director, Francisco Miranda, reflected on the economic prospects for 2023 from a more general environment. “There is a political aspect that is affecting the economy in a different way than we have been used to seeing (…) now the concerns of Colombians are connected to the economy.”

For this reason, “I hope that a condition is created in which the Government, the production unions, businessmen and other economic actors, together, build the roads so that by 2023, which is perceived with an economic situation of deceleration and low growth, we have the necessary paths to withstand this downturn both from the business point of view and also at home and especially the vulnerable”, assured the director of Portfolio.

From a macroeconomic perspective, Professor Jorge Restrepo assured that, in 2023, the country will face a “impact of the ICT sector on the Colombian economy and prospects for 2023. We are going to face an economy with low growth, with low investment opportunities, with few sectoral opportunities, with a marked depreciation of assets, which, in turn, will be an opportunity What will investors face next year?“.

In other words, according to Restrepo, there will be “the opportunity to buy cheap, the opportunity to have a high-return economy with low prices but high risk.

(Economic challenges faced by the Government in its first 100 days).

Finally, in relation to the impact of the ICT sector on the Colombian economy and the prospects for 2023, “the information and telecommunications sector was the sector that showed the most decrease as of December 2021,” explained Faihan Al Fayez.

According to WOM’s vice president of corporate affairs, the ICT sector should target turn off 2G and 3G networks to migrate to newer technologies. In addition to, “detect the digital gap, where are those who are not being able to connect and why, to have a diagnosis that allows identifying a course of action and in the near future have a greater number of people connected“.

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