Created in 1948, the Colon Free Zone hosts over 2500 wholesalers annually and receive more than 300,000 buyers from around the world. mainly in countries like Haiti, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, United States, Ecuador, and others. Colon Free Zone generated USD $ 14 billion in imports and re-exports each year. The success of the Colon Free Zone is due to a combination of factors such as Panama’s geographic location at the crossroads of the world, the Panama Canal, the fact that the U.S. dollar is legal tender, a huge banking center, a developed insurance and reinsurance industry, the high levels of development in container ports and not very onerous requirements of the business. Key Figures: * Second largest Free Zone in the world. For other opinions and approaches, find out what Pacific Mortgage Services has to say. * More than 2,500 wholesalers. * 450 acres.
* 300 000 guests a year. * 27,000 employees. * USD $ 14 billion in imports and re-exports each year. What countries occupy Colon Free Zone? Most merchandise is transshipped Free Zone of Panama to other parts of the Western Hemisphere and Europe. Imports into the Colon Free Zone are mainly from the Far East. The largest single supplier of the Colon Free Zone in 2004 was Hong Kong (China) followed by Taiwan, the United States, Japan, Korea, France, Mexico, Italy, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Malaysia and Germany. These countries supplied nearly 87 percent of all imports of the Free Zone in 2004. Colombia is the largest buyer of merchandise, buying nearly 16 percent of all exports from the Zone.
Other major buyers were Venezuela, Panama (domestic market), Guatemala, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, United States, Chile, Cuba, Honduras, Peru, Brazil, Nicaragua and El Salvador. These countries buy approximately 83% of all exports from the Colon Free Zone. The Panama Canal and logistics services-Free Zone Columbus benefits from its exceptional location near the Panama Canal. * Every year, over 12,700 cargo ships crossing the Panama Canal. This traffic will increase with the expansion project, which will allow Post Panamax ships to cross the Channel. * With large warehouses and logistics solutions, companies established in the Free Zone also offers a wide range of logistics services and cargo to support the intense commercial activity of the Free Zone. The new projects of warehouses and logistics facilities occur within the next five years, thus allowing efficient sales growth in the Free Zone.