The Colombian economy has been expanding since the early 2000s, with exports including petroleum, coffee and flowers becoming a major component of economic growth. Colombia has a long history of private sector involvement in infrastructure, and the Procuring Authority, ANI, was created in 2011 as part of the central government's goal of improving infrastructure provision in the country.

The PPP law was passed in 2011, while the history of concessions in Colombia has been longer and was based on the existing concessions law which predates 2011.

This PPP law sets the guidelines that should be used by any governmental agency when contracting under a PPP scheme. This law was based on international best practices, as well as on lessons learned from Colombia's long experience of managing concession contracts. The new legal and institutional framework enabled Colombia to structure and procure an important number of PPP projects in the past few years with the ambition to close its transportation infrastructure gap and improve its competitiveness.