Line designed and created by:

SWISS STATE SECRETARIAT FOR ECONOMICS AFFAIRS - SECO: www.seco.admin.ch
The Swiss State Secretariat For Economics Affairs - SECO- is responsible for the internal economy as well as for the trade and the external economic affairs of Switzerland. One of its tasks is to define the development of the economic and commercial cooperation in priority selected countries. An innovative initiative is to create and support Cleaner Production Centers in those countries. During the last years, SECO has supported the establishment of several of these Centers, among them the Colombian center.

Technical counterpart in Colombia

CENTRO NACIONAL DE PRODUCCIÓN MÁS LIMPIA Y TECNOLOGÍAS AMBIENTALES - CNPMLTA: www.cnpml.org
The National Center of Cleaner Production and Environmental Technologies of Colombia is a non-profit corporation, private, founded in March, 1998. Its principal headquarter is located in Medellin, and its activities are realized also in cooperation with local associates in 8 cities of Colombia.

It’s staff is composed by around 16 technical and administrative professionals, responsible for the direction and coordination of programs and projects for cleaner production, efficient use of the water, energy efficiency, waste management, eco-labeling, environmental management systems and performance indicators, ecobalance and Life Cycle Assessment, and special strategic projects. The services include one or several of the following aspects: information, capacity building, training, technical assistance, technology transfer and policy advice.

The CNPMLTA belongs to several committees and teamworks in the international, national, regional and local order, and it has strong relationships with Environmental authorities, company associations, NGO´s, governmental authorities, cooperation agencies and universities.

The CNPMLTA has developed contacts and relationships with national, regional and international institutions, as a high level support to guarantee the quality of services. Among them, EMPA (St. Gallen, Switzerland), SECO (Berna, Switzerland), UNIDO (Viena, Austria), SwissContact (Quito, Ecuador), InWEnt ( Wiesbaden, Germany), ISO/DEVCO (Geneva, Switzerland), FUNIBER (Barcelona, Spain), STENUM (Graz, Austria) and PA Consulting Group (Washington, USA).

Financial intermediaries in Colombia
Those who establish the conditions of the credit, handle the lendings and transfer the possible partial reimbursements for the investment to the borrower are:

BANCOLOMBIA: www.bancolombia.com.co
BANCOLOMBIA has 364 offices located in more than 116 cities, a net of 760 ATM and a wide list of products and services. It has around 10.14% of the whole of the assets of the national financial system.

BANK OF BOGOTA: www.bancodebogota.com.co
The Bank of Bogota initiated its operations on November 15, 1870, as the first financial institution created in the country, with a capital of 500.000 $ and with the power to emit bills. The Bank is the pioneer in some bank products as saving accounts, offered to colombian people for the first time in 1923. The Bank of Bogota has become stronger through the years, and it has extend his geographical influences due to merging with others regional banks and entities.