**The article is written by Ignacio Gaitán Villegas, president of iNNpulsa Colombia. This post is part of a special entrepreneurship policy series for Global Entrepreneurship Week (#GEW2020). Curated in partnership with the Startup Nations policy community, this series of guest articles seek to highlight how public servants can remove barriers to entrepreneurs, by highlighting examples of policy approaches from around the world.
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In the last two years, entrepreneurship in Colombia has developed sufficiently to achieve important milestones that are expanding horizons for young businesses.

Such milestones include the creation of CEmprende, which connects entrepreneurs from different regions of the country through a collaborative support offer from private companies, the education institution and the public sector. The CEmprende community has already reached more than 5,900 entrepreneurs.

For its part, the Fund of Funds has promoted the development of alternative financing mechanisms for entrepreneurs, mobilising $140 million in business credits. Congress is meanwhile examining the provisions of a new Entrepreneurship Law that could support job creation through a modern regulatory framework benefitting startups.

In August 2020, Colombia’s national government announced another feat for small business development — iNNpulsa's first overseas Innovation and Entrepreneurship Office. This represents a new bridge to overseas markets, cutting-edge technology and knowledge transfer.

This overseas Innovation and Entrepreneurship Office, located in Israel, will serve as CEmprende's global satellite.

iNNpulsa is collaborating with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, and the Presidential Council for Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation.

This new milestone fills us with pride, and is in line with our national government’s goals of  promoting entrepreneurship as a path towards greater equity in the country.

Among its two main objectives in this space are to strengthen sectors and technologies, such as agritech, cybersecurity, healthtech, edutech, fintech, among others, and to generate valuable international connections that allow high-impact Colombian ventures to consolidate.

Why Israel?

Israel was chosen for this endeavor for several reasons. First, because it is a global benchmark for entrepreneurship and innovation. With more than 7,000 startups per capita, it ranks first among OECD countries in private investment in R&D as a percentage of GDP (around 4.3%).

It also has the highest concentration of relevant employees for R&D: 140 per 10,000 inhabitants, followed by the USA with 85 per 10,000 inhabitants.

Israel also features important innovation and 4.0 technology centres. Among them are the Har-Hotzvim Technology Park, the Givat Ram High-tech Park and the Malcha Technological Park. This initiative will leverage these centres in favour of Colombian entrepreneurs, through technology exchange and adoption.

The third reason for choosing Israel is that it allows iNNpulsa to establish closer links to innovation and entrepreneurship offices that the national governments of countries such as Australia, Germany and Denmark currently hold in the country.

This will enable us to make connections and create synergies that focus on the growth of our entrepreneurs, in addition to facing more internationally.

Once the office is up and running, we plan to establish knowledge and technology transfer processes between companies in the agro-industrial, health and advanced manufacturing sectors

Lastly, Israel was chosen because we can learn from its experiences in promoting venture capital and its advances in science, technology and innovation. We can use this experience as a roadmap for nurturing key three drivers of development in the 21st century.

The World Economic Forum

Both Colombia and Israel are part of the World Economic Forum (WEF) network of 4th Industrial Revolution Centers, an initiative focused on the development of 4.0 technologies in countries that make up this network.

The opening of iNNpulsa's first overseas Innovation and Entrepreneurship Office will further connect these C4RI centres to collaborate on the implementation of these technologies across different productive sectors.

Once the office is up and running, we plan to establish knowledge and technology transfer processes between companies in the agro-industrial, health and advanced manufacturing sectors, to increase their levels of innovation and competitiveness to access specialised markets.

CEmprende's global satellite takes place within the Colombia-Israel Free Trade Agreement, which was set in place last 11 August.

We also hope to launch a program for the exchange of best practices in entrepreneurship and incubation between Israeli and Colombian Universities, with a view towards increasing the chances of start-ups attracting venture capital.

The opening of this office is the cumulative result of efforts to strengthen young innovative businesses in Colombia.

The message this sends is clear: our entrepreneurs have the capacity to conquer international markets and collaborate with the best in the world. — Ignacio Gaitán Villegas.

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