Colombia | Life Sciences & Health Mission

Are you interested to expand your business to Colombia, or do you want to strengthen your existing relations in the country? Join the Life Sciences and Health Mission to Colombia to (re-)connect with important stakeholders and key decision makers and register now!

When: April 15, 2024 – April 19, 2024
Where: Colombia
For: eHealth, Public Health, Screening Programs, Value-Based Healthcare, Accessibility

This mission is part of a multi-annual public-private program on co-creating integrated care between Colombia and the Netherlands. This been made possible by Holland House Colombia and the “Partners for International Business” (PIB), named WeCareColombia. The LSH PIB WeCareColombia is a three-year cooperation between the Dutch government and a cluster of Dutch companies and knowledge institutes.

About Colombia

The new Colombian government came with many changes. President Petro´s National Development Plan (Plan Nacional de Desarrollo or PND), a document comparable to the coalition accords in the Netherlands, lays out his plans for his 4-year governing term from 2022 – 2026. Along with reforms such as the pensions reform and labor reform, the healthcare reform is currently being negotiated in congress. In the PND, the government speaks of changes to primary care as well as of infrastructure expansion throughout the Colombian territory, from large to medium-sized cities as well as in smaller municipalities.

Primary care will become a key aspect of the new healthcare system, while the PND also announced a new Masterplan for Infrastructure and Equipment Investment. This masterplan will accompany the 10-year Public Health Plan, which was due for renewal last year as well. The 10-year Public Health Plan´s first draft has been published, and the masterplan is about to be released. Lastly, the PND provides certain benefits for local governments investing in public health infrastructure.

The first initiatives have been identified: at the First Health Infrastructure and Equipment Fair (Primera Feria de Infraestructura y Dotación en Salud), the government pledged 485 billion COP (a little over 108 million EUR) for 2023, raising the budget to 1.300 billion COP (a little over 290 million EUR) for 2024. This money is to be divided over 25 projects in 20 regions of Colombia. After this initial scan of projects, the Masterplan for Infrastructure and Equipment Investment will be published, completing our stock of infrastructure projects for the next 10 years.

What to expect?

The overarching topics of interest during this mission are eHealth, Public Health, Screening Programs, Value-Based Healthcare and Accessibility.

Program

The program of the mission will take place jointly in Bogotá from Tuesday to Thursday. After Thursday, the location is dependent on the individual matchmaking appointments. Therefore, we will be travelling on the 16th and 20th of April.

However, for those who prefer to arrive on Sunday April 14th, Holland House Colombia can also prepare individual matchmaking appointments in Bogotá already on Monday and Tuesday.

The program is still under development but will include the following elements:

Collective site visit in Bogotá to a care provider.
Collective seminar/roundtable in Bogotá with key stakeholders.
Individual matchmaking with key stakeholders in Colombia arranged by Holland House Colombia.
Networking events where you can meet (new) local business contacts.
Knowledge sharing and possible cooperation with participants within the Dutch LSH delegation.
Presence and support from the Task Force Health Care and Holland House Colombia.