La Guajira is ranked 25th in the Departmental Competitiveness Index (IDC) 2024, with a score of 3.99 out of 10, according to the analysis presented by the Private Competitiveness Council (CPC) and the Universidad del Rosario.
According to the criteria of
La Guajira managed to climb one position in relation to 2023, remaining above Arauca, Guaviare, Putumayo, Chocó, Amazonas, Guainía, Vaupés and Vichada.
This report, which evaluates the performance of the country’s 32 departments and the city of Bogotá, highlights both the progress and challenges of the region.
The department showed its best performance in the market size pillar, placing itself in seventh position, below Bogotá, Antioquia, Atlántico, Cundinamarca, Valle del Cauca and Bolívar, after reaching a score of 6.55, driven by a notable performance in the degree of commercial openness indicator, where it obtained 7.43, positioning itself as the best nationally.
However, it faces significant challenges in the pillars of higher education and training for work and the financial system, with scores of 2.17 and 1.81 respectively.
In higher education and job training, La Guajira It presents low scores in key variables such as postgraduate graduates, gross coverage in technical and technological training, and coverage of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), with high quality accreditation, in which it obtains scores lower than 1.3 out of 10.
In the financial system, the main problems include financial inclusion, insurance coverage and commercial portfolio deepening ratio.
Despite these challenges, the department recorded its greatest progress in the higher education and job training pillar, improving by 0.8 points compared to the previous year, advancing three positions.
However, it experienced its greatest decline in the pillars of environmental sustainability and labor market, declining in both 0.6 points.
At the national level, the progress in most departments in their competitive performance stands out, which is encouraging news regarding the development trends followed by the departments in the last six years, and the progress in closing the gaps regional.
IDC 2024 introduced significant methodological changes, including an adjustment in the standardization method that considers the observed historical maximum and minimum values of the variables in a six-year time window. This adjustment allows a more precise comparison of the results and the analysis of the evolution of the competitive performance of the departments.
The departments of Caquetá, Guainía and the San Andrés Archipelago stood out for their significant advances, with average annual increases of 4.7%, 4.6% and 3.5% in their overall scores, respectively. However, Putumayo showed a decrease in its overall score, with an average annual drop of 0.8%.
Gustavo Adolfo Quintero, rector (e) of the Universidad del Rosario, and Ana Fernanda Maiguashca, president of the CPC, emphasized the importance of the IDC as a tool to improve public policy and subnational competitiveness.
“The IDC 2024 is a crucial input for the political situation”said Maiguashca, emphasizing its usefulness for citizens, the private sector, academia and local governments in the debate on the country’s major issues.
ELIANA MEJÍA OSPINO
Special for EL TIEMPO
RIOHACHA
