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The education sector is growing in tandem with the economy, as expansion stimulates a need for highly skilled workers. Demand for higher education has increased significantly in the past decade. In 2012 the number of students enrolled in specialisation programmes surpassed 81,000, an increase of nearly 50% from 2002. Several reforms are currently under way aimed at improving access, funding and quality. The government has channelled considerable funds into the sector in the past two years and will continue to do. The additional funds should help the sector address its main challenges – a lack of infrastructure and resources to maintain high levels of instruction and a gap in quality standards between urban and rural areas – and help guarantee continued growth.

A handful of international awards and recognition have placed Colombia’s health system on the global radar as the sector seeks to conform to international standards. A recent reform to the universal health care system in 2012 improved coverage and made access to services more affordable, boosting the potential for the pharmaceuticals industry and allowing Colombia to build its presence has a producer and distributor in Latin America. Medical tourism has experienced growth, in particular in the areas of plastic and reconstructive surgery even though illegal operations remain a problem. Nonetheless, complex financial and management issues continue to restrict the growth of a quality health system, which faces ongoing challenges, in particular the shortage of specialists and a growing gap in quality standards between urban and rural centres.

Sport has not only become a vehicle for social inclusion in Colombia, but also a budding industry contributing to economic development. While public sector investment has been promising, the private sector has been more reticent, and has mainly focused on sponsoring big-name teams and athletes. This is likely to change now that the basis of professional sports development, aside from football, has been established. In addition to a range of investment opportunities from specialised training to the promotion of particular sports, the most popular sporting disciplines are currently experiencing improved levels of sponsorship, a consequence of their higher visibility domestically and internationally.

An improved perception of security has boded well for Colombia’s tourism sector. Identified as a strategic growth area in the National Development Plan, the sector has grown consistently in the past few years, earning $21.2bn in 2012 and accounting for 5.3% of GDP, a figure expected to reach 5.4% in 2013, making the sector the third-most-important source of foreign currency behind oil and coal. Some 1.7m visitors entered Colombia in 2012, a 7% increase from the previous year and nearly double the global growth rate of 4%. Given these positive indicators, the government has ambitious plans to boost the annual number of visitors to 4m by the end of 2014, for which it set aside a budget of $373.8m. Ecotourism and the global meetings industry have displayed the most potential for growth.

Identified as one of five sectors with strategic importance for its ability to bring about growth in other sectors, the research and innovation sector is set to undergo development in the near future as the 2012 tax reform will see 10% of all revenues from the extractive industries go towards funding innovative projects promoted by regional governments. The contribution of innovation to the country’s economic growth remains small, but efforts are under way to strengthen innovation facilitators, encourage the formation of innovation-based clusters and links between local, regional and national stakeholders and realign academia, researchers and the private sector. These initiatives have already shown some positive signs as a growing number of multinationals are setting up or expanding their research activities in the country, a trend expected to continue.

The ICT sector is undergoing considerable development as the government implements its Vive Digital Plan, a strategy that targets the overall improvement of telecommunications connectivity and is expected to facilitate $12.5bn worth of investments into the sector between 2011 and 2014. The telecoms sector saw the mobile penetration rate surpass 100% in 2012 and its first major auction of 4G spectrum in 2013. While it still faces major challenges, the auction will improve network quality and increase the Vive Digital Plan’s budget considerably. Likewise the IT market has expanded, bringing in $5.8bn in revenue in 2012 as the adoption of new technologies increases, creating more opportunities for internet providers, software engineers and many other segments. This chapter includes an interview with Diego Molano Vega, Minister of Information and Communications Technology.