The Cádiz Free Zone has participated this week in the World Free Zones Congress held in Panama, where it developed an agenda of institutional and business contacts aimed at providing international visibility to the projects and capabilities of the Cádiz fiscal enclosure. The meeting, held between May 12 and 14 in the Panamanian capital, gathered more than 1,500 public policy officials, business executives, and representatives from free zones in different countries.
The Cádiz Consortium was represented by the Director of Business Promotion and Foreign Trade, Marta Domínguez, and the Director of the Financial and Blue Economy Area, José Manuel Fedriani. Both participated alongside representatives from the Spanish free zones of Vigo, Barcelona, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife, in an international event focused on the exchange of experiences and opportunities for cooperation between logistics areas and fiscal enclosures.
The presence of the Cádiz Free Zone at the congress featured its own stand in the exhibition area, where the projects, facilities, and competitive advantages of the Cádiz fiscal enclosure were presented. The space received numerous visits from institutional and business officials interested in learning about initiatives related to logistics, innovation, and the Blue Economy developed by the Consortium.
The participation of Cádiz has additionally served as an international platform for one of the startups integrated into its Blue Economy ecosystem, EONSEA, a technology company specializing in inspection, monitoring, and analysis of underwater infrastructures. The company, currently participating in the Blue Core Exterior program, showcased during the event its solutions based on advanced robotics and artificial intelligence applied to the management of submerged assets.
During their stay in Panama, representatives of the Consortium held meetings with different entities and organizations related to international trade and logistics development. Among them is Propanamá, a governmental agency responsible for developing attraction strategies for investments and promoting exports in the Latin American country. The meeting addressed possible lines of collaboration and presented the capabilities and infrastructures of the Cádiz Free Zone.
The Consortium's stand also received a visit from officials from BASC Panama, an international business alliance focused on promoting secure trade through cooperation among administrations, international organizations, and the private sector. Likewise, representatives from the Special Development Zone of Paita, in Peru, showed interest in the projects related to the Cádiz fiscal enclosure.
The institutional agenda also included a reception at the Spanish Embassy in Panama, where representatives from the various Spanish free zones present at the congress participated. This meeting allowed for the exchange of impressions on the development of the sector and the opportunities for collaboration between Spain and Latin America in logistics and trade.
One of the planned activities to conclude the visit was the tour of the Panama Canal and the Colón Free Zone, considered the second largest free zone in the world and one of the main multimodal centers for international distribution. During this visit, meetings were held with representatives of the Panamanian entity, and an invitation was extended to participate in the XXIX Ibero-American Free Zones Conference to be held in Cádiz next October.
The World Free Zones Congress also hosted the General Assembly of the Americas Free Zones Association (AZFA), an organization that is already working on preparing the Ibero-American conference planned in the Cádiz capital. The event in Panama has also served to strengthen ties between the different participating free zones and consolidate institutional relationships for future joint projects.
The representation of the Cádiz Free Zone also took advantage of its presence in Panama to maintain contacts with entities and companies from Latin America, especially Colombia, with which there were already relationships stemming from previous trade missions developed by the Consortium.
Participation in this international forum is part of the Cádiz Free Zone's internationalization strategy and the promotion of its business ecosystem, especially in areas linked to technological innovation, logistics, and the Blue Economy.