The Latin American country’s delegation at this year’s Mobile World Congress comprised of 55 ICT companies —up from the 40 that participated in the Colombia pavilion last year, supported by MinCIT and ProColombia.
Colombia is working hard to become a "Digital Powerhouse," where ICT drives development and investment, thus improving the population's quality of life.
"Colombia's participation in the Mobile World Congress gives us the opportunity to continue strengthening a network of international partners that will support us in becoming a tech-producing country, thus consolidating our regional leadership in areas such as Artificial Intelligence. We will share our experiences and progress in ICT, so that the world can see how Colombia will become a Digital Powerhouse," said ICT Minister Mauricio Lizcano.
"Within the National Digital Strategy, built during this administration, this scenario is crucial for strengthening alliances between the public and private sectors and achieving an inclusive and sustainable digital transformation," stated Saúl Kattan, Presidential Advisor for Digital Transformation.
Regarding the strategy, ProColombia President Carmen Caballero highlighted, "We aim to use our participation at this important event to increase opportunities for Colombian software and IT companies to generate business in other areas of the world as well as create synergies with ProColombia's counterpart entities in order to boost the promotion of Colombia's Industry 4.0 sector internationally."
Colombia is the third largest IT market in Latin America. In 2022, software and IT exports reached USD $294 million. Additionally, it has the second most skilled labor force in South America. In 2023, Colombia exported to more than 30 different software and IT markets, including the United States, Ecuador, Panama, Spain, and Brazil.
Furthermore, Colombia remains the highest ranked country in the Americas in the 2023 Digital Government Index, published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This analysis measures 38 OECD member countries' efforts to use data and technological tools in order to encourage people-centered digital transformation.