Competitiveness and Productivity of the Colombian Economy by Means of Competitive Routes and Clusters

Abstract

The paper shows the state of the art of identification, formation and development of the clusters in Colombia, collecting topics from the decentralization process in Colombia, the fiscal decentralization and the economic growth; a period of economic changes in the country begins from these two topics, the productive apparatus is prepared to compete with the most demanding markets of Europe, Asia and North America. For carrying out this, it was necessary to change the culture of production, it is not a matter of doing what the entrepreneur wants but to propose new goods and services to the global market, generating a brand value and differentiating them from international competitors; Colombia in the twentieth century opened its doors to foreign trade, and started working on the proposal of economic opening, it was necessary to work on the new Political Constitution of Colombia, from that time there is a change, a work of the National Planning Department, in conjunction with the National Council for Competitiveness, the work is based on proposing new productive bets, this as a strategy to face the competition that was seen coming to the country, with the risk of losing national entries in the market by national companies and on the contrary the international companies would arrive at the national market with new products, innovated and of low price, the national industry would not be able to produce and compete at the prices of the imported goods. One of the initiatives is to form associativity, by means of which productive processes could be improved, more advanced technology would be handled, joint research would be carried out, and work would be done to transfer knowledge, strengthen the productive chain and within the organizations would improve the value chain as a strategic tool, through which the company's activities and sources of competitive advantage are analyzed; from this, the clusters are being worked on another proposal, which began to revolutionize Colombia's economic change by moving from an economy based on extractive and mining activity to offering differentiated products with added value, quality was considered an integral part of the good and with a specialized human resource, in this way the regions have made a great social leap, since from this new chain the regions begin to strengthen their economy, to improve their human talent, to manage the supply chain, and above all to export non-mining energy products that in short only leave shortages of products from the family basket, depletes and impoverishes the productivity of their soils, contributing a negative GDP, because in the long time, the land where the mineral exploitation as oil and coal become sterile for that, although at one point they can represent an important sector for the economic activity of the country and reflects in its GDP an important percentage to the economy, this type of economic activity destroys the country's competitiveness in the long term, so in the medium term can be seen as a lever for economic and social development. The clusters represent a new production alternative for the country as a strategy for local growth, for the Colombian economy in global scenarios means diversification in the exportable supply; for this, it is necessary to define strategies that enable productive transformation in the country, this will provide tools and sophisticated knowledge allowing the productive sector to obtain greater profitability and sustainability over time, to offer products, bines and high quality services [28]. The aim that the cluster network has been working for is the generation and exchange of knowledge among the different actors that are part of the productive alliance formation and cluster dynamization. This objective is evidenced by the success it has had in the Valle del Cauca with the cluster of sugarcane, medical excellence, macrosnacks, care and beauty, white protein, among others.It is for all the above that this work wants to show the importance of the diversification of goods and services of an economy from the synergetic and pooled work that the clusters provide, it is well known that the economies that diversify are those that can compete in the global market since its economic component is not only based on sometimes non-renewable natural resources such as hydrocarbons, but they work with the most important resource that an economy has its human talent, this resource is renewable and it is not exhausted, on the contrary it is transformed, updated, qualified, transferred and it is a know-how for international trade, this term can be understood as preexisting knowledge not always academic, which includes techniques, secret information that is known and handled efficiently and with experience, which has become a valuable intangible asset, this includes the most appropriate way to mix components, equipment used, this personnel that knows how to perform the tasks; all this is mixed in a cluster.