He Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Germán Umaña Mendozaassured this Thursday that the reopening of the border with Venezuela has been successful, almost a year after the gradual resumption of relations between the two countries.
“We have to say that the opening of the Colombian-Venezuelan border is a success. The integration of the borders is fundamentally revived in conditions different from those we always live in,” Umaña said at the binational meeting “The border as a bridge: commercial integration Colombia and Venezuela”, held in Cúcuta.
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According to the minister, the change is not due to “the passage of trucks, it is not the passage of commerce from the center of the country, without contributing to the development or closing of the social indicators of Norte de Santander and Táchira, but rather it has been a responsible revival of the border through the promotion of productive development”.
However, Umaña gave figures on the commercial exchange between the two countries but stressed that this is not essential.
The trade through this border that was closed for several years reached 143.8 million dollars between September 26, 2022, when the loading pass was opened, and on June 30, 2023, according to official data.
The border was closed in August 2015 due to a political crisis between the two countries, and then, on February 23, 2019, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro severed diplomatic relations with Colombia after opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s attempt to enter that border. country from Cúcuta at the head of a humanitarian caravan.
“What we are going to do is fundamentally, not so much to trade, but to investment, to the development of these binational investments, of that industrial and productive complementarity because it turns out that the important thing is not the growth of trade,” said the minister.
The Venezuelan consul in Cúcuta, Sergio Ramón Arias, as well as businessmen from both countries also participated in today’s meeting.
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The representative of the Colombian Federation of Cargo Transporters by Road (Colfecar), Víctor Méndez, told EFE that Norte de Santander has many products such as clothing, clothing, footwear, food or medicine that Venezuela needs and can be sold.
“With intermediary banks already responding, the flow of vehicles that will transport the merchandise will be 10 or 15 times higher than what we are drawing,” he said.
Méndez also assured that the passage of vehicles through Norte de Santander is greater than through Paraguachón, the Colombian town closest to Venezuela on the northern border, between the department of La Guajira and the Venezuelan state of Zulia.