With an actual population of 100 million inhabitants, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru,represent the Andean Community. 40 years ago they decided to work together, to walk a path of development together, to cooperate for a better future. Nowadays the Andean Community is a Free Trade Zone, without tariffs and obstacles for their intra communitarian trade, with same trade regulations in all these 4 countries.
Blessed with natural resources, these countries have successfully taken advantage of the last decade peak in commodity prices.
They have invested most of that non-expected profits in innovation, technology, alternative energy and infrastructure, in order to transform their traditional basket of production and exports into products with higher technical standards, industrialized and value added.
These factors besides well-managed governments, sound macroeconomic indicators, and political stability determined that these 4 countries have lead Latin America economic growth the past years. Private sector also has been successful in attracting foreign investment for productive sectors and tourism.
Traditional exports of oil, minerals and non-traditional such as desirable agricultural products, continue to success in the international trade. But the Apparel and Textile sector has become one of the most dynamic, with faster growth rate, being intensive in workforce, and with competitive advantages among other countries. Andean Countries have high quality supply of raw material such as alpaca wool and cotton, that combined with designers and a experienced workforce, allowed the industry tojump from maquila to full packageexports rapidly, creating benefits in both parties, manufacturers and buyers. It has had its impact in the ratio of industrialized production in the GDP, in lower unemployment rates, diversifying export products and improving the composition of exports.
In 2009, international crisis affected Andean Countries due to the dependency of United States development. But in recent years, textile and apparelexports have grown constantly,reachingUSD 4 billion in 2013, attending 180 countries, almost a quarter part of exports was shipped to USA, the main market in this sector.
This joint participation of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru at Magic is part of a strategy to attend decisively the American market, offering competitive and high quality sourcing services and a long-run relationship that benefits both parties.