Bogotá, Nov 17 (EFE) .- A group of eleven Spanish companies toured four complex regions of Colombia with the aim of exploring inclusive and sustainable business opportunities with the support of the ICEX Spain Export and Investment and the Commercial Office of the Embassy of Spain in Bogotá.

At the end of their trip, they presented their experiences and conclusions today in the forum "With what support can my project count for the successful development of inclusive businesses?", Organized in Bogotá.

In this context, the Spanish ambassador, Pablo Gómez de Olea, highlighted that the trip "has generated expectations in the communities" that must respond with a component of corporate social responsibility, but also with a corporate one.

"It is important that can generate sustainability in the time that the projects do not end when the company or cooperation shift comes and closed the project, "said the ambassador.

In In this sense, the economic and commercial counselor of the embassy of Spain, Elisa Carbonell, told Efe that the project is "absolutely innovative and innovative" and stressed that it goes "for good way. "

Carbonell explained that they have done a" bottom-up "work, since they first met the needs" of the communities and then the companies were made aware of the situation on the ground.

"The next step is to seek funding to make these projects a reality," he said.

The embassy official explained that Spain is "world leader" in sectors such as renewable energies, energy connectivity with isolated areas, agro-industry or sustainable tourism, because what the trip that Buenaventura, Carmen de Bolívar, Popayán and Tumaco, several companies from these areas attended.

For its part, Sara Ladra, Deputy Director of ICEX, stressed the fact that "companies had the opportunity to get to know communities and where business opportunities are born. "

He also explained that they worked in" co-creation and innovation workshops ", something" very novel in this type of visits. where we have put together the companies, organizations and even the communities. "

" There has been mutual dialogue where they have been able to shape almost a first draft business model, work on identifying needs, assess business opportunities and the next step is to identify sources of funding, "he said.

One of the entrepreneurs who participated in the visit was Ricardo Otero, manager of Supracafé, a Spanish company with a subsidiary in Colombia.

For him the trip was very important because his business "is based on getting a high quality and sustainable coffee".

"We do not see any better or more sustainable way than going to the community, taking note of the problems they have and working by the hand of them, "he concluded.

Felipe Tascón, adviser to the High Councilor for the Post-Conflict, Rafael Pardo, also participated in the forum. He emphasized that many of these communities have developed a strong capacity for innovation since they had to solve the problems that arose without great support from the State.

"The cocaleros have endured between 30 and 50 years of war against drugs because the motivation is economic, that is, they come to that for lack of opportunities but have developed a spirit of staying alone (...) if they have A disease in the plant does not have the way to go to the Ministry of Agriculture to give technical assistance, "he explained.