The working groups will be led by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism and ProColombia.

The Government of Colombia, together with representatives of the country's various productive sectors, have initiated the meetings "From Colombia to New Markets", with the aim of drawing up a roadmap for Colombian products to take better advantage of the opportunities offered by different markets in the world.

These working groups will be led by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism and ProColombia, and will also include the participation of its commercial offices abroad, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Colombian embassies around the world and representatives from the agricultural and industrial sectors, among others.

Through joint work, we seek not only to conquer new markets, but also to take advantage of the full potential offered by the destinations where Colombian products already arrive, all this while continuing to work and strengthen work with Colombia's traditional trading partners.

"In the current context of global trade, it is very important that Colombia limits its dependence on a single market so that our products can reach a wide portfolio of countries. Our sovereignty depends on us being able to have a diverse market, not only in the number of products, but also in the number of countries," explained the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Luis Carlos Reyes Hernández.

The Government of Gustavo Petro hopes that a series of joint initiatives will emerge from this work, such as visits to different countries to open markets.

Working together we can achieve much more than working alone.

"We want Colombia to be an example in terms of what we can achieve together to protect the Colombian economy and our industry and take it to the whole world," Reyes said.

These meetings seek, among other purposes, to strengthen Colombia as an export platform for the Latin American and Caribbean market; to establish new strategic partners for the country in Asia; to achieve economic integration with African countries and to identify opportunities resulting from trade agreements in order to achieve greater use of them.

IDENTIFY OBSTACLES

It is hoped that this joint effort will identify the obstacles that arise when reaching different countries and define a roadmap through which, with the support of the Ministry of Commerce to exporting companies, improvement processes will be managed to overcome these obstacles and coordination between State entities will be facilitated.

Technical roundtables are also expected to be set up to address other challenges faced by the different industries in the markets where there is the greatest potential for their products.

This joint work should lead to Colombia exporting more non-mining energy goods, for the benefit of the community, the economy and the preservation and creation of jobs.

The following roundtables, which will be held this week, will include representatives from the plastics and rubber, packaging, chemicals, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and hygiene products, hospital equipment, metalworking, clothing, furniture and wood, household items and crafts sectors, among others.

In the following weeks, these meetings will be held with other productive sectors that were not included in this first stage.