Colombia’s Infrastructure Chamber Warns of Stalled Projects, Not Money

Colombia’s infrastructure chamber, CCI, is sounding an alarm about stalled projects, not a lack of funding, under the new government. The chamber’s assessment, presented to the incoming administration, reveals that only six of the 14 planned regional airport projects have active contracts, with physical progress on these works at less than 3%.

The core issue, according to CCI, is slow coordination between the national infrastructure agency ANI and the civil aviation authority Aerocivil, leading to institutional delays and bottlenecks. This is contrary to the assumption that budget constraints are the main obstacle. The chamber emphasizes that the sector’s risk lies in institutional delay, not financing scarcity.

With the airport segment showing stark figures, only six of 14 planned regional projects have live contracts, and even those have minimal physical progress. The CCI urges the government to treat infrastructure as a state policy, offering legal certainty and regulatory stability across various project types, to avoid the sector becoming a bottleneck itself.

The chamber’s warning serves as a test for the new administration to demonstrate progress on priority airport works and improve Aerocivil’s planning and execution, or face the risk of further underperformance in the infrastructure sector.