South America is home to many cities with bustling business life, vibrant culture, and rich historical heritage. Many of these excellent locations offer attractive business conditions and are great places to relocate and start a new venture. Of all the cosmopolitan cities of Latin America, however, Columbia’s capital Bogota shines the brightest.
The city won the 2020 South America’s Leading Business Travel Destination prize at the World Travel Awards. Again, in 2020, Startup Blink named Bogota the number two Spanish-speaking city in the Fintech Ecosystem Global Index. So, what is this wild success due to?
What Makes Bogota Unique?
Before we discuss in detail the specific reasons why Bogota has become so attractive to businesses worldwide, let us give you a brief overview of Columbia’s main and largest city. Bogota is situated in the southeastern part of the Bogota savanna. It constitutes a high plateau at an altitude of 2,640 meters (8,660 feet). This makes the city both the highest and the most populated urban area at this height.
Bogota boasts a mild, oceanic climate, where dry and rainy seasons alternate throughout the year. The city’s inhabitants amount to about 7,5 million, most of whom are concentrated in the megalopolis’ urban area. The local life is diverse, exciting, and eventful. Bogota is home to an exhilarating mixture of businesses, cultures, cuisine, arts, and activities.
Now, let us see what comprises the award-winning Bogota business proposition!
Access to highly qualified personnel
Bogota is famous for its incredibly rich talent pool. In fact, fDi Intelligence, which is the investment monitor of the Financial Times, ranked Bogota among the Top 10 Human Capital and Lifestyle cities. Colombia’s capital won seventh place in the category of cities with a population between 5 and 10 million, where it scored ahead of places like Toronto, Madrid, and Mexico City.
The city is famous for its high-quality education from an early age that spreads to college and higher degree studies. This is the place to note that the country’s Universidad de Los Andes and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia are among the 10 best universities in Latin America. The statistics go further to inform us that just a couple of years ago, Bogota Region had 29% more higher education graduates than the areas of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the Lima Metropolitan Area, and Mexico City all combined.
Not only is the quality of talented individuals high, but so is the number. Bogota Region has about 6.3 million working people, which makes it the largest labor force on the continent. This number is way greater than that of other attractive Latin American capitals like Lima, Mexico City, Santiago, and Buenos Aires. The local population is also very skilled in foreign languages and open to foreign cultures and businesses.
In addition, Bogota is extremely inclusive in its approach to education and business. Everyone gets a chance to study and work as their dreams and ambitions dictate. For instance, statistics collected by Invest in Bogota show that 70% + of entrepreneurships and startups in the capital have women on their boards of directors.
Excellent infrastructure
Among its other assets, Bogota has been praised for its outstanding infrastructure, which we all know is extremely important for businesses. The city houses El Dorado, which is the number one cargo airport on the continent and number three in terms of passenger flow. El Dorado was also the first airport in Latin America to receive a five-star rating by Skytrax thanks to the early adoption of advanced biosecurity measures against Covid-19. The World Tourism Organization was also quick to endorse its biosecurity seal.
Bogota also offers numerous lodging opportunities for business travelers. There are abundant local and internationally renowned hotel chains, many of which have won prestigious international awards.
Talking about hotels, we cannot help but mention the superb conference venue you can find in Bogota. Columbia’s capital is one of the most exciting and convenient destinations in South America if you are looking to organize a business event. So far, more than 120 prominent organizations worldwide have selected Bogota as their preferred destination for prestigious events like the World Summit of Nobel Peace Awards, the One Young World, and many more.
Colombia’s capital is particularly rich in convention centers and has a dedicated district for fairs, which includes venues like the Agora Convention Center, the Corferias fairgrounds, and the Hilton Bogotá Corferias Hotel.
There are also plenty of options to select from if you wish to hold your event at a non-traditional venue. You can choose between places like the National Museum, the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá, and many more.
Business-friendly, entrepreneurial environment
To give you a further overview of the business benefits of Bogota, we cannot help but mention that StartUp Genome has recognized Bogota as the second-best emergent entrepreneurship ecosystem in South America. In addition, AT Kearney rewarded Bogota as one of the top global cities on the continent. To add even more stars to the capital’s rating, fDi announced it as one of the American Cities of the Future.
Bogota boasts a very strong entrepreneurial environment and has become an effervescent fintech hub for both local and international companies. Tens of successful startups that originate from Columbia’s capital at present, and startup investment has boomed into a six-figure amount. Last but not least, the city is big on environmental sustainability. Based on all of this, it is not surprising that Bogota is attracting almost 50% of all foreign investment in Columbia