Location

Colombia occupies the north-west corner of the south cone as a link between the countries of the north and south in the hemisphere. It has coasts on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Buga is located in the state of Valle del Cauca to the Colombian west.

Guadalajara de Buga is an articulation node of the three most important highway systems of the Colombian south-west, which are the grid Bogotá – Buenaventura, Buga – Eje Cafetero (Coffee production area) – a north/center of the country and the highway Buga – Cali – Country South.

This strategic location is reinforced by the optimal conditions of the national highways, the availability of railroads, the connection with the port on the Pacific and the closeness to the international airport Alfonso Bonilla Aragón, all of those help the integration of the sub-region with the rest of the country and the world.

   

Colombia is a democratic Republic, with a privileged and strategic place in Latin America. It has abundant natural resources. It is currently one of the main destinations for investors in the region; in a large measure due to the great commercial opportunities it offers, and its legal stability. Colombia was named by the World Bank as the country with the greatest progress in Latin America; thus providing an ideal environment to do business in it.

The growth of the GDP in Colombia has been significantly higher than the world average in the last decade. In recent years, the country has been known by its economic stability and by being able to control its inflation in an appropriate manner. Recently, the main risk rating agencies have assigned to Colombia the best indexes of trust.

(Adapted from the Legal Guide on How to Do Business in Colombia 2016, ProColombia)

Valle del Cauca is located in the southwest of Colombia on the Pacific Ocean, its capital Cali is the third most important city in the country. The region has 4.7 million inhabitants, a population comparable to countries such as Costa Rica and New Zealand. Its gross domestic product in 2015 was USD 27 million, higher than some Latin American countries such as Paraguay, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Valle del Cauca is a dynamic and diverse region that represents 16% of the national industry. It is one of the 10 destinations for Foreign Direct Investment according to the Financial Times. It has the main port on the Pacific Ocean, Buenaventura, through which 53% of the country’s cargo is moved, connecting it directly with more than 360 ports in the world.

(Adaptated the Invest Pacific)

The central zone of Valle del Cauca provides the 16% of the state GDP. The GDP of Valle del Cauca was $58,6 billion pesos, representing the 9,4% of Colombia’s GDP and 12% of the national manufacturing GDP.
Industry, agriculture, real state, and business services provide the 48,3% of the GDP of the central-south area.
With the presence of a well-developed industrial sector, settled in the city since the midlast century, which produces an imperative percentage of direct and indirect employment in the region.

Buga is a city imbued by more than four centuries, highly historical relevancy that has taken it to be one of the greatest exponents of patrimonial character. Its historical center is a national monument, represented in colonial and republican constructions, wealth that took it to be included in the “Touristic Net of Patrimonial Cities” promoted by the commerce, industry and tourism ministry

  • The hinterland of Buga includes the central-south zone of the Valle del Cauca state formed by eight municipalities that encompass an extension of 3.535 km2 and a population of 293.000 inhabitants approximately.
  • Buga has a role of region-city as a node of logistic development, touristic metropolitan circle, it also has important poultry, commercial and agroindustry buildout. Factors that make Buga an enticing city for investment.
  • It is constituted as a center that provides services in security, justice, university education, institutional services, health and ecclesiastical ministration in an area of influence of seven municipalities of the center of Valle del Cauca covering 300.000 inhabitants approximately.
  • It's the only city that, despite not being a state capital, it has a superior court of justice and a net of judicial services that are currently in expansion. It is the headquarters of the artillery battalion "Batalla Palacé" and the diocese of Buga. It is also command post of the Tourism National Police, from the Police District.
  • It has a level 1 public hospital, private clinics, and the San José Hospital foundation, the most important hospital of reference and counter-reference in the center of Valle del Cauca with services level 3 and 4, which attends patients from the north of the state and Buenaventura.
  • It offers one of the highest life quality standards in the region according to the measuring of the National Planning Department and DANE, just like the UN program for development - PNUD.
  • The city has been a pioneer in the implementation of the single school day and the model of educational citadels. Higher education institutions are present in the city as well, among them, Universidad del Valle, Universidad Antonio Nariño, Universidad del Quindío, Corporacion Universitaria Minuto de Dios and Corporacion Universitaria Remington, along with ITA University Institute, official institute. Besides, it is base of the Agricultural Center of Buga - CAB SENA.
  • The city's preferential location on the highway grid, the distance to the port, the closeness to the international airport in Palmira and its proximity to Cali, are conditions that position Buga as a fundamental pillar of the logistics map of Colombia.
  • It also counts with vast experience in logistics activities for loose cargo handling, physical mixture and bulk packing with Buga as the destination and a foremost enhancement of storage and transport services.
  • Buga is a receipting core of tourist and pilgrims, due to its condition of a sanctuary city, its historical center, with monuments considered goods of cultural interest, among others, make the city perhaps the main touristic destination of Valle del Cauca.
  • Guadalajara de Buga holds competitive tax incentives to promote the arrival of new companies, economic development, and employment generation; similarly, it offers tax incentives to companies that are already settled in the city and that foster additional employment.
  • In Buga, companies are created in only one place. Through the business attention center as the only contact point, just in one day for a natural person and two days maximum for a legal person.
  • The hinterland of Buga includes the central-south zone of the Valle del Cauca state formed by eight municipalities that encompass an extension of 3.535 km2 and a population of 293.000 inhabitants approximately.
  • Buga has a role of region-city as a node of logistic development, touristic metropolitan circle, it also has important poultry, commercial and agroindustry buildout. Factors that make Buga an enticing city for investment.
  • It is constituted as a center that provides services in security, justice, university education, institutional services, health and ecclesiastical ministration in an area of influence of seven municipalities of the center of Valle del Cauca covering 300.000 inhabitants approximately.
  • It’s the only city that, despite not being a state capital, it has a superior court of justice and a net of judicial services that are currently in expansion. It is the headquarters of the artillery battalion “Batalla Palacé” and the diocese of Buga. It is also command post of the Tourism National Police, from the Police District.
  • It has a level 1 public hospital, private clinics, and the San José Hospital foundation, the most important hospital of reference and counter-reference in the center of Valle del Cauca with services level 3 and 4, which attends patients from the north of the state and Buenaventura.
  • It offers one of the highest life quality standards in the region according to the measuring of the National Planning Department and DANE, just like the UN program for development – PNUD.
  • The city has been a pioneer in the implementation of the single school day and the model of educational citadels. Higher education institutions are present in the city as well, among them, Universidad del Valle, Universidad Antonio Nariño, Universidad del Quindío, Corporacion Universitaria Minuto de Dios and Corporacion Universitaria Remington, along with ITA University Institute, official institute. Besides, it is base of the Agricultural Center of Buga – CAB SENA.
  • The city’s preferential location on the highway grid, the distance to the port, the closeness to the international airport in Palmira and its proximity to Cali, are conditions that position Buga as a fundamental pillar of the logistics map of Colombia.
  • It also counts with vast experience in logistics activities for loose cargo handling, physical mixture and bulk packing with Buga as the destination and a foremost enhancement of storage and transport services.
  • Buga is a receipting core of tourist and pilgrims, due to its condition of a sanctuary city, its historical center, with monuments considered goods of cultural interest, among others, make the city perhaps the main touristic destination of Valle del Cauca.
  • Guadalajara de Buga holds competitive tax incentives to promote the arrival of new companies, economic development, and employment generation; similarly, it offers tax incentives to companies that are already settled in the city and that foster additional employment.
  • In Buga, companies are created in only one place. Through the business attention center as the only contact point, just in one day for a natural person and two days maximum for a legal person.

 

Connectivity

 

 

  • The geographic location, the climate conditions, the infrastructure and connectivity, the articulation of different means of transportations, the offer of business and financial services in the region and the accessibility to markets, make of Buga an excellent alternative for business settling.
  • The strategic location of Buga and its availability of a dual carriageway grid, allows it to connect with the international airport, Alfonso Bonilla Aragon (40 minutes away), the industrial zone of the north of Cauca (90 minutes away) and consumer centers like Cali (50 minutes away), and the region “Triangulo del Café” (90 minutes away).
  • Currently, construction work of the dual carriageway grid Buga – Buenaventura is being carried out. Which will allow reducing the travel time in that route to only two hours, reducing transportation costs.

 

 

 

Logistics Facilitating Services

 

 

 

 

Logistics Facilitating Services

  • The business services offered in the region and accessibility to markets, make of Buga an excellent alternative for the settling of companies with special requirements in management, distribution, and transportation of packaged goods and in bulk.
  • This is reflected in the number of logistics supplier companies (transport and storage) present in the central-south region of Valle del Cauca and especially in Guadalajara de Buga, which possess 77% of them.
  • Companies specialized in cargo road transport are mostly constituted as a natural person, followed by the foreign type agency and commerce, and limited societies and simplified joint stock.

 

 

 

Financial and employment facilitating services

 

 

 

 

Financial and employment facilitating services

The main commercial banks in the country,
constituted as agencies and foreign branches, with a vast network of ATMs, online banking, special services for companies
and banking correspondents.

1.Banco BBVA
2.Bancolombia
3.Banco Agrario
4.Grupo AVAL (Bancos: Popular, AV Villas,
Occidente y Bogotá)
5.Banco Coomeva
6.Banco Compartir
7.Banco Scotiabank – Colpatria.
8.Banco de las Microfinanzas – Bancamía
9.Banco WWB
10.Banco Caja Social
11.Banco Davivienda

árbol dinero

In the city, there are three agencies, two private agencies ascribed to compensation funds and a public agency ascribed to SENA.
You can find more information at:  

They provide for free basic services of placement that provide job offerors and seekers:

  • Registry in a job search on the platform www.serviciodeempleo.gov.co
  • Registry of employers and openings
  • Orientation to job-seekers by specialized professionals in the service centers.
  • Orientation to employers by specialized professionals in effective applicant searches, labor profile creation, among others.
  • Preselection through analyses of openings according to the employer’s requirements.

Companies that develop activities as temporary employment agencies and hr supply according to the necessities of the soliciting companies.

  • Summar Temporales S.A.S.
  • Ocupar Temporales S.A.
  • Acción S.A.
  • Proservis Empresa de Servicios Temporales SAS.
  • E.S.T. Misión Empresarial Temporal S.A.S.
  • Emprender Servicios Temporales SAS. EMPSERT
  • Talento Humano Empresa de Servicios Temporales S.A.S.
  • Somos Suministros Temporal SA
  • AAA – Gente Proactiva Ltda.
  • Pensionarte S.A.S.

 

 

 

 

 

Health and Welfare

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Guadalajara de Buga has insurance coverage for contributory schemes, subsidized and special of 94,30%, very close to the national margin that is 94,88%.
  • The intermediate determinants of health for Guadalajara de Buga are way above the national and state average, the main coverage and rural area in on-site pipe water is 96,9%, sewage of 93,9% and electricity 98,58%.
  • The city counts with 12 public and private establishments as clinics and hospitals with an Internment capacity of 2,72 beds (adult, intensive care and intermediate care) for every 1000 inhabitants, they generate 238 direct jobs and total sales of 25.7 thousand million pesos in 2017.
  • Additionally, these companies count with a complimentary service network (diagnostics support, opticians, pharmacies, dentistry, and esthetic centers) that go over 400 establishments. They employ about 175 people and made annual sales for 27.948,7 thousand million pesos.

 

 

 

 

 

Customized training

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guadalajara de Buga has pioneered in the implementation of the single school day and of the Educational Citadels model, presence of higher education private and public institutions, besides a great number of training centers for work and human development; such offer allows companies and entrepreneurs count with staff with specific or transversal labor competencies related to occupational fields according to the productive initiative of the region-city.

Academic programs that offer the possibility of counting with professional technicians in Import-Export operations, International commerce management; for the energy mining sector, it offers: Auscultation equipment operation, planning management, Operation of sampling equipment; and technical training on goods and services supplier for the energy mining sector.

 

univalle

 

Institution with regional coverage through a decentralized regional university system. It counts with students in educational programs like a bachelor’s degree in music or history, psychology, business administration, accounting, industrial engineering. Technological training in electronics, IT and touristic company administration.

Uniminuto

 It offers higher education services and support to companies and communities; the educational services are face-to-face and long distance: Postgraduate degrees in Education Management, Project management, masters of education. Professional programs of business management, Bachelor’s degree in children’s pedagogy, psychology, Occupational health administration. Technological training in business and marketing, logistics and Costs and audit.

Sena_Colombia_logo

The Agricultural Center of Buga – CAB of SENA started operations in 1967. It serves the area of influence of the center of Valle del Cauca. The technical and technological training programs combine dual education, in other words, one side corresponds to the formative stage in the CAB and the other one to the practical or productive in the company for training programs mostly related to agroindustry, agriculture, commerce, and services.

Additionally, it develops evaluation and certification processes in labor competencies for people with more than a year of self-learning experience in any work activity.

 

logo Universidad antonio nariño

It offers programs of in- person professional training (Business administration) and long distance (psychology, technical training in Industrial electromechanical maintenance) and post-graduate degrees (public administration, systems audit, financial management) and masters (healthcare economy, international economy, financial and tax management), its premise is to strengthen the link university, company and state and the satisfaction of the education community, holding a competitive academic and administrative staff.

 

 

 

 

 

Permanence of companies in the city

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Permanence of companies in the city

 

 

The business network of Guadalajara de Buga and the nearby municipalities is solid, boosted by the commerce, services and manufacturing industry sectors. Similarly, the permanence of companies in the territory is very important, now that they are indicative of the fact that the city inspires trust in investors, offering them a dynamic growing stable environment.

With the issuance of the decree 410 of 1971 – With the code of commerce that began on January 1st of 1972, is created the Mercantile Registry, since that date in Guadalajara de Buga have settled important companies that are currently still working from the city, such as Almaviva (storage service company of national operation) that still remain in the business field.

Presently there are 41 companies whose mercantile registry dates from more than 35 years of permanence. This number has been increasing alongside with the number of companies registered in other Neighboring cities.

Nevertheless, there are companies whose construction was carried out before the application of the code of commerce (1972) which support its existence through public deed registered in notary, such as the cases of Cecilia Payan – Dulces del Valle, Solla and Grasas among others.

 

 

 

 Attention to the employer

 

 

 

 

The CAE – Business attention center, is a service platform available to the productive sector for the creation and constitution of companies in one day, one single step, one single place in only one contact.

The CAE works in the Chamber of Commerce building of Buga and allows to centralize and reduce to an only procedure the constitution and Business formalization of the jurisdiction.

CAE Services

  • To provide information and guidance to the employer in formalities, processes, and requisites for the creation and formalization.
  • Specialized legal advice.
  • Free and permanent auto consultation terminals.
  • One-stop shop for receipting forms, verification, and entitlements.

Virtual services and procedures

  • 24/7 Availability for users.
  • Availability for carrying out procedures from any place
  • Online follow up.
  • Legal security in the operation thanks to the Identity verification system of their users and the implementation of online payment platforms.

Online services

  • Registration and renewal
  • Certificates
  • Document inscription
  • RUES- Single business and social registration
  • Status and tracking of different forms
  • Self-settlement
  • RUP – Single Proponent Registration
  • Homonyms or duplication consultation
  • Classifications of Goods and Services for Proponents
  • Accounting books registration in electronic means
  • Notifications of Submitted Applications
  • RNT – National Tourism Registration
  • Compite 360

Other services

  • Project structuring
  • Conciliation and Arbitration
  • Business strengthening
  • Business formalization
  • Economic studies
  • Databases

 

 

 

 Mercantile registration fees 2019

 

 

 

 

 Mercantile registration fees 2019

 

The next are the fees of the public registration that will be applied from January 2nd of 2019.

Such were calculated according to the monthly legal minimum wage set by the national government for the year 2019, whose amount is $828.116 COP.

*Click on the image to enlarge

*Click on the image to enlarge

 

 Tax incentives

 

 

Investors in industrial activities, commercial and services can access tax incentives in the industry and commerce tax like this:

Municipal resolution 03 of March 30th of 2016

Tax incentives to promote investment, economic development and employment generation

Incentives for foreign investment in Colombia

* If 20% of the hired staff are persons with disabilities, Women who are heads of households, ethnical group or minorities aged over 35 years old, vulnerable groups, professionals and youngsters from Guadalajara de Buga.
SMMLV: Legal Minimum Monthly Salary Effective.

  • I+D Incentives:

     

    • Deduction of income tax equivalent to 175% of the invested value in technological I+D, it must not exceed 40% of the net income.
    • VAT exemption to the importation of equipment used by I+D centers endorsed by Colciencias.
    • Resources received for financing scientific projects, technological or innovation entries are exempt of income tax.
    • Protection to the industrial property adjusted to international standards.
  • Other tax incentives for the exportation of goods, capital, and spare parts and services.
    • Incentives for formalization and employment generation:incitement to new job positions reached by young workers with appropriate training level linked to the vacant subsidized by the company.
    • Discount in the income tax and Complementary of the Parafiscal Contributions and other contributions of the payroll to new jobs (it doesn’t include jobs generated by replacements or business merging).
  • Incentives to the investment and legal security for the investors:
    • Agreements of protection of investment and agreements to avoid double taxing with the main business partners.
    • Deduction of income tax equivalent to 175% of the investment in projects of research and technological development.
    • Exemptions of income tax to several sectors.

 

 

 

 

 

 Local touristic offer

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guadalajara de Buga is considered one of the principal touristic destinations of Colombia. The sanctuary of Señor de los Milagros (Lord of miracles) brings about three million visitors annually to take part in religious activities, explore religious art, historical and cultural patrimony. This strength granted for Buga belonging to the Touristic Net of Patrimonial Cities, integrated just by 17 cities of Colombia.

This touristic positioning joint to its location, communication roads, hostelry capacity and the level of organization have allowed Buga the consolidation as an axis of touristic routes of the region. From Buga, different tours can be programmed to know, make and enjoy the attractive activities and services of Valle del Cauca.

Green destination or “Destino Verde” It includes the offer of recreational activities of the Township of Alaska in the middle rural area of Guadalajara de Buga.

This initiative is part of the rural tourism development project “Destino Paraíso”, which covers the central area of Valle del Cauca.

 

 

 

 Regional touristic offer

 

 

 

 

Metropolitan Circle of Tourism of the Center of Valle del Cauca– CMT


The CMT is a form of integration of municipalities that tends to improve the provision of tourism services by cooperation or association (Article 109, Law 300 of 1996). Attractive articles and products from 8 municipalities: Calima – El Darién, El Cerrito, Ginebra, Guacarí, Guadalajara de Buga, Restrepo, San Pedro, and Yotoco.

The joint and participative work is carried out in three lines:

1. Local and regional touristic planning, and strengthening of the Tourism Advisory Councils.

2. Articulated touristic product design

3. Production of statistical information in tourism and research groups.

 

 Cultural Agenda

In Buga take place several and diverse cultural events with a permanent agenda of activities for the spreading of art and universal cultures aimed to all audiences, keeping as main scenery the municipal theater of Buga, the squares and piazzas of the historical center and other locations in the city. It includes concerts in all expressions, among them classical music, rock, jazz, gospel, carols, and Colombian folklore and from other countries, also the presentations of plays, poetry slams, modern dancing, painting exhibits, which are organized including formative activities in open workshops for different audiences.

Other events and activities

agenda cultural puntos

 

 

 

 Successful Experiences

 

 

 

 

Finanfuturo

Centro Logístico Industrial del Pacífico CLIP S.A.S

Usuario operador de Zona Franca

Other Successful Experiences

Download the document here -> Investor's Guide