President Álvaro Uribe Vélez highlighted that in his speech at the 50th anniversary of the Managers Association of Guatemala. The Head of State stressed the need of the FTA approval with the United States in order to guarantee better investment long-term rate.

Ciudad de Guatemala, Oct 13 (SP). “Now that we have realized our Trade Agreement, I would say that the most important thing is to look for investment.  Today, the priority for trade is that trade agreements could bring investment”, President Álvaro Uribe Vélez said at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Managers Association of Guatemala.

In his visit to Ciudad de Guatemala, President Uribe said that the Agreement with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, in which Colombia has recognized some market asymmetry in this agreement in favor of those countries, must bring prosperity to the entire neighborhood.

“We want to make of Colombia and the region the best investment destinies of the world, and we want to work with you for it. We want to see Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize, all our Central American Brothers, turn into the best investment destinies of the world”, he said.

In addition he expressed “I say that because we care about our brother countries and also for practical reasons: there is no better thing that to have a prosper neighborhood. We need prosperity in the entire neighborhood here”. 

Uribe Vélez considered that the main concern of Colombia nowadays for the economy’s progress is the access to markets and investment.

“All of you as managers know that if there is not a sustained and high investment rate, it is impossible to have prosperity in a company. You can apply that to a country. That collectivity, that company of all the citizens which is the Nation, cannot progress unless it has an uninterrupted road of prosperity”, he said.

That is why the FTA with the United States is necessary to Colombia, he expressed.

“I am concerned about the fact that the United States Congress has not approved the Trade Agreement, because we need that as a sign to be able to stimulate a bigger and sustainable long-term investment rate in Colombia”.

“Market access and investment: two very important assumptions of economy. In these years, we have made agreements with Chile, Peru, to go beyond the limits of the Andean Community, we made the Andean Community-Mercosur agreement and it has been very important to make the Agreement with you, with El Salvador, with Honduras. An agreement in which Colombia has recognized a favorable asymmetry for you”, the President of Colombia told the Guatemalan executives.