“Chinese rail, roads and buses arrive in Colombia”, 8^th January 2020

…Last year, Chinese companies finally made headway into Colombia, the Latin American country that has arguably been most sceptical about investment from the region’s second-largest trading partner. There were plenty of headlines in December about the Zijin Mining Group’s purchase of gold-mining company Continental Gold. But in truth, Colombia had already opened the door to Chinese capital and its companies through the transport sector…

In October last year, Bogotá chose two Chinese companies as winners of the tender for the construction of the first line of its metro, which will begin this year…

The company is made up of APCA Transmimetro, a consortium 85% owned by China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), which is a subsidiary of the state-run giant China Construction Communications Company (CCCC). The remaining 15% is held by Xi’an Metro Company, a company from Shaanxi province that operates mainly in China and led the construction and running of the Xi’an subway…

In November, Medellín added the first 17 electric buses manufactured by the Chinese company BYD to its Metroplús public transport system. The purchase of 64 buses made Colombia’s second city the owner of the second-largest electric fleet in the region, with the local government financing all of them. The deal was won following a tendering process in which two other companies offered buses from Chinese manufacturers Yutong and Zhongtong…