Panama due to its privileged geographic location and the Canal dividing its Isthmus, is and has been considered a link and service center for international commercial trade. Nowadays, Panama lives in a time of great changes and challenges caused by the globalization of the economies and the rapid growth of world commerce.
This leads us to faithfully fulfill market access and competition policies, in order to exploit the comparative and competitive advantages that our country has to offer.
Such conditions and tendencies allow Panama to position itself as an important participant in international trade, being our interest, to offer these advantages for the benefit of businessmen and women all over the world.
A series of relevant facts place Panama in a privileged position in the regional context. The transfer of the Canal to the total jurisdiction of the Republic, the important growth of the tourism industry, the generation of new businesses in the service sector, the implementation of electronic commerce legislation, and the modernization of national ports, combine with the efforts of regional integration through the Panama-Central America Free Trade Agreement and the Free Trade Area of the Americas, of which we are hosts until February 2003.
In addition to this, it is necessary to recognize the subscription of bilateral promotion and reciprocal protection of investments, commitments for which all Panamanians will continue to strive for, to eliminate state bureaucracy, and fiscal simplification and restructuring, which result in the opening of new markets and economic development for Panama.
Due to the above mentioned, we invite you to discover all these opportunities that make Panama the commerce capital of the region.
Discover the Panama Canal -- the Eight Wonder of the World.
Since its inauguration in 1914, the Canal has been connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, servicing the world maritime industry. It has an average transit of 13,000 vessels per year, about 36 vessels per day, from 80 countries operating in 160 commercial routes.
With an extension of 83 kilometers, the Panama Canal has become the most economic, safe, efficient and competitive way of inter-oceanic maritime transportation.
Reverted areas
They are in the so-called inter-oceanic region which represents 5 percent of Panama's total area and extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. An area of 94,000 hectares, with 7,000 buildings and infrastructures, such as airports, hospitals, offices, schools, warehouses and power plants, are available for commercial use by companies interested in developing in the logistics center for transportation and cargo distribution.
Port system
Our principal and largest ports are located in the Atlantic Coast, managed by important International Port Operators, offering services of high operational performance at reasonable costs.
They are the following ports -- Manzanillo International Terminal (Stevedoring Services of America), Colon Container Terminal (Evergreen International Corporation), Colon Port Terminal (Hutchinson Port Holdings) and Colon 2000 (Cruise Ship Terminal). In the Pacific the two main ports are -- Panama Port Terminal S.A. (Hutchinson Port Holdings) and Rodman Pier (Alireza Mobil), for fuel loading and unloading.
Colon Free Zone
Created in 1948, In the Atlantic coast, Colon Free Zone is the world's largest commercial free zone after Hong Kong, and the first in importance in the Western Hemisphere. The following activities are among those carried out by this free zone; storage, import and re-export of all products, exempted from entrance or departure duties, or specific taxes.
Its around 1,800 companies are built in the area of approximately 400 hectares, handling every type of products, from medicines to liquors, jewelry, clothing, canned products and electric appliances. Since its opening more than 50 years ago, it has promoted world trade; today it is visited by more than 250,000 persons a year for business purposes.
EPZs
Export Processing Zones (EPZ's) are defined as Free Zones of Enterprise, specifically delimited, where all infrastructures, installations, buildings, systems and supporting services are developed, as well as the necessary operational organization and administrative transaction under maximum efficiency criteria, for the establishment of companies from around the world whose activities are the production of goods and services for exportation.
Banks
Free flow of capital transfer, banking secrecy, absence of a Central Bank and the use of US dollars as legal tender, among others, have been essential factors for this sector's development. There are more than 115 international renowned banks in Panama which provide every type of financial service.
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