The first two weeks of November saw possibly the best Bogotá motor show ever: the 12th annual event featured about 1,000 vehicles displayed by 45 brands, about 30 local launches and attracted 215,000 visitors.
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Said Oliverio García, president of Andemos, the importer’s guild: “During the show, sales rose 1.4 times the average month of 2010.”
End-October year to date sales were 197,350 units and the monthly average 19,735 but November sales could rise to 27,629, may be the best month in Colombian automotive industry given that October sales of 23,462 units were the second best on record, after September (23,597).
The forecast of 240,000 units for 2010 could be overtaken because, some observers say, “there’s no reason to be afraid about a change in the economical or political environment of optimism”.
García said during a forum on the benefits of FTAs that “if Colombia would tear down its protectionism of the assembly industry, automotive sales could rise to 450,000 units”, but his colleague in Andi (an industrialists guild), Juliana Rico, cited the benefits of 50 years of protectionism: “The Colombian automotive industry has competitive opportunities for consolidation as a world class industry [and] with an industrial policy assemblers will become producers and export to their natural partners: the Andean Community, Central America, Brazil and Mexico”.
Assemblers have told the government to be cautious with future FTAs, a direct reference to the one that is currently being discussed with Korea.
