Inclusive Border (Frontera Inclusiva)

The Project

In recent years  it has been shown that a large portion of the liquid fuel supply in the border area between Colombia and Venezuela enters the country illegally because of the enormous price difference of gasoline between the two countries. Despite the efforts of the Colombian government to implement different public policy instruments, fuel smuggling continues to increase and so do the problems associated with it.  . Among the negative effects generated for the country by this situation, the following can be highlighted: 

• The deterioration of public finances, and
• The lessening of the formal productive activity of the border areas because of the increase in informal distribution and commercialis  ation of liquid fuels.

One of the measures adopted was the co-financing of projects for the development of business models in partnership with the Ministry of Commerce-Innpulsa and the Ministry of Mines and Energy, in its first version, they supported 920 informal liquid fuel merchants in border areas using an intervention route aimed at improving their production and marketing capacities in other sectors of the economy and promoting, through said improvements, advances in the formalis  ation process.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Ministry of Commerce Innpulsa, in their strategy to implement social reconversion policy instruments, established a second version to accompany informal liquid fuel merchants and selected Swisscontact as the executor to support 300 units’ production activities, benefiting 515 people by  strengthening their enterprises.

During this intervention, Swisscontact will strive to:

• Identify the technical, social and business expectations of the public and private actors related to the productive transition process of informal liquid fuel distributors in the north of Santander in order to establish the necessary steps for its implementation which are framed in a sustainability institutional model.
• Design a comprehensive diagnostic model for the units selected in the announcement stage to identify their skills and business potential, as well as their technical shortcomings to establish intervention plans under technical assistance and training spaces.
• Contribute to the strengthening of the capacities of the selected tasks with practical methodologies and with   high andragogic content.
• Accompany the capitalisation process, for the technical delivery of working capital.

Project Partners

• Ministerio de Minas y Energía de Colombia
• Alcaldía de Cúcuta – secretaria de Desarrollo Económico
• Gobernación de Norte de Santander