Vice President José Manuel Restrepo presented a 176-project investment portfolio to business leaders in New York on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, during United Nations General Assembly week, as Colombia’s government pitched the country’s future to the people with the money. The pipeline is valued at more than US$150 billion in investment opportunities, while Colombian outlets put the same package at more than 600 trillion pesos, about US$188 billion. Big numbers, bigger promises. The whole thing is built to attract capital, and the state is selling access with the language of growth, incentives and legal stability.
Who Gets the Pitch
Restrepo spoke at a meeting of the Consejo Empresarial Alianza por Iberoamérica, or CEAPI, and a day earlier he met about 40 senior executives at the Council of the Americas on Park Avenue. Apple, Intel, Pfizer, Visa, Citi and Lockheed Martin were among the companies represented. Restrepo said in a social media post that more than 60 investors saw the opportunities. That’s the audience: corporate power, gathered in New York, weighing Colombia’s resources and labor against projected returns.
The report said 37 projects were chosen as priorities out of the wider bank of 176. The sectors named were energy, infrastructure, logistics, agribusiness, tourism, industry, software, critical minerals and artificial intelligence. The state is not presenting a public plan for people at the bottom. It’s presenting a menu for investors, with the government acting as broker, fixer and cheerleader all at once.
What the State Is Selling
The plan is called Misión Crecer. According to the report, it rests on investment incentives with legal stability, a bank of strategic projects, cutting rules and paperwork, and moving domestic savings into investment. The stated target is annual growth of 6%. That’s the promise: fewer barriers for capital, more channels for money, and a state apparatus tuned to make the deal smoother.
The report said the peso number is often misread because Spanish-language reports write it as 600 billones, which in Spanish means a million millions. The article also said the two totals do not match exactly and that no official note explains the gap. Even the accounting comes wrapped in confusion. The public gets a giant figure, but not a clean explanation of how the numbers line up.
President Abelardo de la Espriella took office on 7 August 2026, and Restrepo leads the work as vice president. The report said Restrepo is due to deliver Colombia’s address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, 24 September 2026. De la Espriella stayed home, keeping a campaign promise not to leave the country. The symbolism is neat enough: the president remains inside the borders, while the vice president carries the pitch to the global halls where capital and state power keep their appointments.
Growth for Whom
The sectors listed tell the story plainly. Energy, infrastructure and logistics. Agribusiness and tourism. Industry, software, critical minerals and artificial intelligence. These are the fields being packaged for investment, with the state promising legal stability and fewer rules so the pipeline can move faster. The people who will live with the consequences are nowhere named in the report. The investors are named. The companies are named. The projects are named. The workers, tenants and communities who’ll absorb the costs are left as background noise.
Restrepo’s New York circuit, from CEAPI to the Council of the Americas, shows how the machinery works. Officials present the country, corporate leaders listen, and the state offers incentives to keep the money flowing. The report doesn’t describe any public assembly, worker council or community decision-making. It describes a top-down investment campaign, dressed up as national development and timed for the world’s biggest diplomatic stage.