Colombia’s Black Business Hub Seeks to Learn From Atlanta on Inclusion

Almost a year after 20 local Black-owned businesses took a historic trade mission to Cali, Colombia, the city’s new mayor is looking to Atlanta as a model for inclusive business.

“One of the things I’m aiming for is to make the Cali the Atlanta of Colombia,” said Alejandro Eder, who was elected in 2023.

Cali is the center of the Afro-Colombian community, which makes up about 15 percent of the population in the nation of 50 million.

Situated just off Colombia’s Pacific coast, the city of 2.25 million people (3 million metro) boasts the second largest Black community in South America after Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, another city that has sought exchanges with Atlanta, known globally as the cradle of the civil rights movement in the U.S.

Speaking with Global Atlanta on a WhatsApp call during a visit to New York for the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, Mr. Eder said the trip to Colombia last August by business leaders from Atlanta aligns with his goals of empowering Black entrepreneurs.

“We want Cali to be the poster child for real minority and ethnic inclusion in Colombia,” Mr. Eder said. “I always make reference to Atlanta. It’s a brilliant example of how you integrate communities at all levels, not just politically and culturally but also in the business sector.”

One challenge in Cali, he said, is that Black entrepreneurs have few role models in leadership positions. Most of the city’s entrepreneurs, he said, are Black women who are scrappy and effective but need to be bolstered with capital and training.

“In Cali you have a lot of prominent Afro-Colombians as doctors, in culture, in sports, but when you look at the Colombian business sector, you don’t really have many Black CEOs,” he said.

One exception is his recent appointee, Roger Mina, an engineer with a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University who heads up Emcali, the city’s public utility company.

Atlanta, Mr. Eder said, has a head start in providing examples of Black excellence, a model that he hopes to emulate, perhaps by fostering a future partnership between the Afro Colombian Cities Association, of which Cali is a member, and the African American Mayors Association, which held its 10th anniversary meeting in Atlanta in March.

The mayor’s comments echoed those of Luis Gilberto Murillo, the former Colombian ambassador to the United States who was appointed by President Gustavo Petro as the country’s foreign minister in February.

During a visit to Atlanta to kick off the trade mission, for which he also traveled to Cali, Mr. Murillo said the cities share a heritage that should not be overlooked.

“Cali is Atlanta. Atlanta is Cali. You will see that by your own eyes,” he said at the time.

Still, Cali may be less known in the U.S. than other Colombian cities such as Bogota, the capital; Medellin, the country’s commercial center, and Cartagena, a tourist haven on the Caribbean that Delta Air Lines serves with a nonstop flight. Even Barranquilla, an industrial hub on the Atlantic side, has courted Atlanta. See video of a seminar organized by ProBarranquilla and Global Atlanta

That’s one reason that Mr. Eder, a descendant of sugar cane industrialists, is visiting the U.S., in part to remedy outdated tropes about a city once known as the home of an infamous drug cartel that struggled with security.

That story is largely in the past, but cementing security gains for Cali and Colombia more broadly will rely on recruiting investment, said Mr. Eder, who in prior positions helped reintegrate former combatants into society and negotiated with the FARC rebel group.

“We need to develop the country. Period,” Mr. Eder says. “And when I say develop the country, I don’t mean teaching people to weave baskets. We need to make Colombia rich.”

He envisions Colombia following the example of South Korea and Israel, which through technology, scientific innovation and entrepreneurship have become some of the most innovative economies in the world.

As the closest city to Colombia’s largest Pacific port, Buenaventura, Cali is already home to some 200 multinational companies, accounting for 18 percent of Colombia’s industrial output, a fact that should appeal to U.S. firms looking to re-shore operations from Asia, Mr. Eder said.

“We’re trying to reposition Cali again internationally so we can get some tourists coming back to Cali, but also we want to revamp (foreign direct investment) as well,” he added, noting that adventure, medical and eco tourism are emerging areas. “That is something that we are betting on.”

Known as a capital for salsa (the dancing, not the condiment) and sport, Cali is also capitalizing on its natural environment. Ringed with national parks, including in the Farallones mountains, Cali and the broader department, the Valle del Cauca, are home to 560 species of bird and extensive plant diversity.

The city will host the COP16 United Nations Biodiversity Summit in October, showcasing how Cali is embracing climate resilience while cracking down on illegal mining in national parks.

Inviting mayors like New York’s Eric Adams to attend the Cali conference was one reason Mr. Eder was in the United States. During the New York visit, Mr. Eder also met with the city’s police department to discuss anti-terrorism tactics.

In Atlanta, Mr. Eder would like to see collaboration with the world’s busiest airports as Cali begins a bidding process for airport redevelopment and management toward the end of 2024. He also invited travelers to attend next month’s Petronio Alvarez Pacific Music Festival, a landmark annual event.

The mayor wants the chance to lobby Delta Air Lines for a nonstop flight he says would solidify the ties between Cali and Atlanta, home to a large Colombian community. Delta has been expanding its Latin American route map after the approval of its joint venture with LATAM Airlines, including a second daily flight to Bogota and the new service to Cartagena.

Atlanta investors interested in Colombia or Cali should reach out to ProColombia and Invest Pacific, the invest agency for the department of Valle del Cauca, of which Cali is the capital.

Global Atlanta in 2022 sent a reporter to the Macrorueda Buyers Mission operated by ProColombia in Cali. Read that report here: Colombia Courts U.S. Buyers, Georgia Investors With First Post-Pandemic Trade Forum