Joaquín Vallejo Arbeláez

Who is Joaquín Vallejo Arbeláez?

Joaquín Vallejo Arbeláez was a Colombian civil engineer, businessman and writer who served as 12th Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations, and held various ministries during the Military Junta and the National Front in Colombia. As Colombian Minister of Foment in 1957 during the administration of General Gabriel París Gordillo, he helped design and implement the mechanism that would eventually become known as the Vallejo Plan, a business plan that would allow Colombian companies to import raw materials, specialized equipment, and industrial machinery with duty-free exemptions or lowered tariffs, if those materials and/or equipment would go towards producing marketable exporting goods, as an incentive to industrialize the national economy and open up to international markets.