Ricardo Duarte Duarte

Duarte is Founding partner - 1997 - of the Business Law Firm, Duarte Garcia Abogados -DG&A -. He leads the Foreign trade and investment area, mainly focusing his practice on international corporate, investment and trade transactions.

DG&A tailors high quality, timely and relevant legal solutions for the business model dynamics of its customers in Colombia. The Firm is committed to delivering the highest quality legal services available in its areas of practice, mainly Corporate Law and Private Contracting, Foreign Trade, FDI, Infrastructure, Labor and Immigration, Mining and Oil and Gas (O&G).

Duarte is head of DG&A´s Business Development Unit, a "one-stop shop" for NON legal entrepreneurial support in order to decide which legal strategy or decision to take. Duarte is a business model innovation advisor and facilitator.

Duarte was Deputy Minister for Business Development at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism from October 2008 till June 2010 in Colombia. He was responsible for business productivity, competitiveness and entrepreneurial development; the promotion and enhancement of entrepreneurship, innovative and technological capacity and global competitiveness of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises; the promotion of foreign direct investment; and, the business regulatory and legal environment.

As Deputy Minister he was in charge of guiding and consolidating an ambitious economic development program launched during the second term of the Uribe Administration by the name of the Productive Transformation Program - www.ptp.com.co - aimed at overhauling the country’s industrial and services installed base by encouraging the development of new high-value adding economic sectors, through training, regulation, technological innovation and public/private partnerships. This Program is currently a key component of Colombia’s National Development Plan. Actively involved in promoting the development of the venture capital/private equity industry in Colombia.

Led as Deputy Minister the improvement of Colombia’s competitiveness indicators when he led his team in the coordination of Colombian Government efforts aiming at obtaining a higher ranking and achieving the goal of the best business environment in Latin America by 2010 according to the World Bank’s "Doing Business" report.

Duarte was Colombian Chief Negotiator of Free Trade Agreements at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism from 2007 till 2008. Acting in such capacity, he successfully concluded the free trade agreement negotiations with Canada and the EFTA States -Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland-.

He also led four rounds of trade pillar negotiations for the Association Agreement at the block to block negotiations between the Andean Countries (Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia) and the European Union.

Mr. Duarte was Consul at the Consulate of Colombia in Singapore (1995 – 1996). Duarte was the first Colombian diplomat to open a Mission in Singapore. His experience in Singapore shaped his understanding on social and economic development, free trade, competitiveness, productivity and business regulatory environments, among other matters and values.

He was Consul at the Consulate General of Colombia in Tokyo, Japan from 1992 till 1994. As Consul of Colombia and Second Secretary, he was in charge of Technical cooperation and Media.

Honors & Awards

His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., C.D., Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada last December 2014 granted Mr. Duarte a Medallion for his “contributions to strengthening the relationship between Canada and Colombia”.

The Governor General stated in the awarding letter dated 4 December 2014: “You have played an instrumental role in advancing bilateral trade, and I am delighted to see your continued interest in Canada as a premiere destination for trade and investment, and in inviting Canadian companies to work with Colombians. I am also pleased that you are advocating for further ties in education, as the agreement we sign are vital for the mobility of people and knowledge. I am honoured to present you with this medallion.”

Since March 2014, Duarte is a Certified Business Model Canvas Trainer by Strategyzer. Mr. Duarte is the only Colombian certified to teach you how to design, test, and build Business Models and Value Propositions based on the methodology practiced by the world's leading organizations and ventures.

Mr. Duarte was awarded a Certificate of Achievement as the Best Trainee of the 2002 JICA Training Course Award in Tokyo, Japan, in Business Management Cooperation with Asia Pacific.