Opinion/Fifty years of Colombia-Switzerland friendship: A review of business between the countries

Switzerland is a country that represents innovation, quality and trust. This is what we have been promoting for fifty years here in Colombia through the Colombian-Swiss Chamber of Commerce.

It all began in 1975 when a group of Swiss businessmen who came to Colombia with the hope of starting a business created the Círculo Colombo Suizo, which later evolved into what we know today as “SwissCham.” An organization that brings together Swiss companies with a presence in Colombia and has established itself as the bridge that connects both countries in relation to the promotion of bilateral trade and investment.

Today, SwissCham represents forty-four companies with ties to Switzerland. These are mainly well-known multinational companies such as Nestlé, Roche, Novartis, Zurich Insurance, SwissRe, Sika and Holcím. However, we also represent companies that have been founded by Swiss citizens in Colombia and that have established themselves as leaders in their sectors. Some of them include Koyomad (Koller), a leading meat producer, or the jewellery companies Bauer and Glauser, who are the official distributors of luxury watch brands such as Rolex, Patek Philippe and Omega.

Thanks to the joint efforts of the Swiss Embassy in Colombia, Swiss businessmen and SwissCham, today both countries have a solid commercial relationship supported by a Free Trade Agreement, an Agreement to avoid double taxation of companies and individuals and an Agreement for the reciprocal protection of investments.

This institutional framework in terms of trade has allowed Switzerland to become Colombia's fifth most important trading partner today. This is no small feat for a country that, if we look at it in perspective, is landlocked and its largest city has fewer than 500,000 inhabitants.

Just to illustrate a little what this fifth place on the list of Colombia's trading partners represents, in 2024, Switzerland imported from Colombia mainly agricultural products and precious metals worth 400 million Swiss francs, while it exported to Colombia chemicals, pharmaceuticals, precision instruments and machinery worth 600 million Swiss francs.

In addition, in 2023, Swiss direct investments in Colombia amounted to 5.5 billion Swiss francs, generating formal jobs for approximately 13,700 Colombians.

At SwissCham we are proud to celebrate 50 years of representing Swiss values ​​and instilling Swiss innovation, quality and trust in our activities.

We will be celebrating throughout 2025 with a very interesting calendar of events that includes sports tournaments, trade missions, networking spaces and master classes on current political and economic issues that inform the activity of our affiliates and allies.

Mario Reina , Executive Director of SwissCham Colombia