Colombia’s image as a dangerous, war-torn country persists in the international media, despite considerable improvements. The Unidas party’s security and free trade policies during the 2000s have made Colombia a more hospitable place to do business.

Paramilitaries have demobilized, the leadership of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–FARC, the main guerrilla group–has been largely imprisoned or killed, and the widespread deployment of the army has lowered crime.

Furthermore, Unidas’s liberalization of the trade regime and alliance with the U.S. facilitates foreign investment and has considerably eased the economic risks of doing business in Colombia, according to the U.S. Commercial Service.

Corruption, Inflation and Counterfeits
The risks of doing business in Colombia now reflect the normal political and economic risks of doing business anywhere between Buenos Aires and Boston. Political corruption persists at all levels, threatening the reliability and impartiality of the judicial system and other government offices.

Due to historical trends, the risk of high inflation should be considered before making any long term investments, but in the past Colombia has controlled inflation better than most countries in the region. If a business plans on dealing in U.S. dollars, personnel must become savvy to the tactics used by Colombian counterfeiters, who use sophisticated equipment and produce up to 15 percent of the world’s counterfeit dollars, according to the BBC. Read the full story