Investor Watch: December 14, 2023

MEDICAL DEVICES & TECHNOLOGY

Their facility investments are found around the world, and more than one-third of those we’ve tracked since 2018 come from the No. 1 company by sales.

WYOMING

Those two words apply to two projects gaining traction: Plenty Unlimited’s vertical farm complex in Laramie and Rare Element Resources’ Bear Lodge Project near Sundance.

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Unveiling Colombia’s Investment Frontier: Insights from the 8th Colombia Investment Summit & Outlook for 2024

The recent Colombia Investment Summit wrapped up with resounding success, highlighting the nation’s lucrative investment landscape. The event witnessed over 700 participants in Bogotá’s academic sessions and attracted nearly 200 investors to regional explorations across diverse territories of Colombia.

International entrepreneurs immersed themselves in multiple sectors — agribusiness, energy, tourism, technology services and sustainable infrastructure — paving the way for collaborative projects. Carmen Caballero, President of ProColombia, emphasized the summit’s pivotal role in driving the country’s reindustrialization, fair energy transition, and seamless territorial integration.

Feedback from attendees echoed positively. René Moreno of Siemens Energy Colombia lauded the summit’s organization and opportunities, underscoring the event’s significance in fostering global-local collaborations and future business prospects in Colombia.

The Colombia Investment Summit 2024, scheduled for September 9th-17th, is poised to build upon this success, beckoning international investors to delve deeper into Colombia’s thriving opportunities.

For tailored business insights and opportunities, connect with our
U.S.-based Investment Team:
Karen Schutt, kschutt@procolombia.co
Alejandro Echeverri, aecheverri@procolombia.co
Sergio Rodríguez, srodriguez@procolombia.co

Seattle leads the way in tech talent.

Photo courtesy of Washington Department of Commerce

While we were digging into the research of The Burning Glass Institute for yesterday’s Site Selection Snapshot about the American Opportunity Index, we ran across an October 2023 report the organization published with The Wall Street Journal evaluating Cities on the Tech Frontier. It’s not surprising to see the number of California cities near the top. But Seattle is No. 1 across all sizes of cities, and the small-but-mighty Fayetteville metro area in Arkansas is No. 8. Among those areas with tech worker momentum for the future, the Washington community of Bremerton tops the list, with Fayetteville second and Lubbock, Texas, third.

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After a November Site Selection Snapshot compared states with maximum workplace flexibility with their economic development performance in “Tex-Flex: Where Workplace Flexibility and Prosperity Coexist,” we heard from Rob Sadow, CEO and co-founder of Scoop and creator of the Flex Index whose data that story explored. We asked him what cities and suburbs need to do to stay vibrant and attractive as growth locations for companies even as “FOR LEASE” signs proliferate.

“The metros that are most challenged,” he wrote us in an email, “are the ones that have business districts that are skewed heavily toward office vs. residential, and where the local industry mix is heavily tilted toward tech, finance, and professional services (the industries with the highest work location flexibility rates). Those industries will continue to offer high degrees of flexibility, so the business districts have to adapt:

• Reduce red tape on residential development to get new apartments built as quickly as possible.
• Support office-to-residential conversion in both policy and tax incentive to reduce office oversupply.
• Invest in making those business districts destinations for leisure time to lure foot traffic.

“Those aren’t overnight fixes,” Sadow said, “but important investments to start making now to reimagine these areas for the future.”

A tied-arch bridge for California’s high-speed rail route will cross State Route 43.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority last week received nearly $3.1 billion in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation for continued construction in the state’s Central Valley on the way toward the country’s first electrified 220-mph high-speed rail system between Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Lest one think such systems are a mirage, the Authority offers ample proof and a progress update: “With the southernmost 22-mile stretch of active construction currently on the verge of completion, the Authority continues advanced design work to extend the 119 miles under construction to 171 miles of future electrified high-speed rail from Merced to Bakersfield,” it says. “The high-speed rail project has created more than 12,000 good-paying jobs since the start of construction, 70% of those going to Central Valley residents.” Another high-speed rail project, Brightline, will receive $3 billion to connect Los Angeles to Las Vegas.