By mid-2009, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe ended decades of virtual civil war and to strengthen the business climate, but he faced tough economic challenges. Although he established the famous market reforms and brought inflation down sharply, Colombia seemed to be stuck in the middle, behind the industrialized Brazil and Chile, and ahead of the poor in Latin America. Traditional exports - coal, coffee, oil - still account for more than half of the total, while manufacturing exports accounted for about one fifth. Public investment in transport and other infrastructure - the eternal obstacle to growth in the mining of Colombia - is too low. Uribe's main ambition or his possible successor, was minded to ensure approval of the U.S. Congress a free trade agreement, which was signed in 2006. But will it really help Colombia to diversify its economy? Colombia already has access to the U.S. market, but still was a relatively closed economy compared with its neighbors, such as Mexico and Chile. "Hide
by Aldo Musacchio, Richard HK Vietor, Jonathan Schlefer, Carolina Camacho Source: Harvard Business School 23 pages. Publication Date: January 21, 2010. Prod. #: 710012-PDF-ENG