During the meeting that took place this Friday between regional and national authorities in the city of Cúcuta, Norte de Santander, the Colombian Foreign Minister, Luis Gilberto Murillo, reported that during the last 10 years in the “ups and downs in diplomatic relations with Venezuela, including border closures,” one billion dollars were lost per year, that is, ten billion dollars, which is why he insisted on keeping the border open to strengthen integration mechanisms.
By: Luz Dary Depablos | Correspondent lapatilla.com
“This was a trade that used to be worth seven billion dollars a year in transnational exchange and dropped to 200 (million dollars) in 2020 and 2021, today with the reestablishment of relations with the opening of the border and the consolidation of these dialogues between the regions, we are close to 700 million dollars,” said the Colombian foreign minister, who hopes that trade relations will reach one billion dollars by the end of the year.
Likewise, the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Jorge Rojas, said that at present the trade relationship with Venezuela is increasing and ammounts to close to 526 million dollars, “the goal is to close the year with one billion dollars in volume of trade.”
He emphasized that, “migration processes continue to be critical, but we have registered a slight decrease in pendulum migration (back and forth) in this area of the border and we are making efforts to regularize around half a million Colombians who remain in an irregular situation in Venezuela and we continue to develop our migration policy”.