Panama City was the setting for one of the most significant gatherings in the free zone sector in recent years. The 12th annual World Free Zones Organization World Congress brought together more than 2,000 participants from over 70 countries, including 27 ministers, global business leaders, CEOs of economic zones, and representatives of international organizations, under the theme “Free Zones in the New Global Operating Model: Challenges and Opportunities.” The event was inaugurated by the President of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, alongside the President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, and the Chairman of the World FZO, Dr. Mohammed Al Zarooni.
Araújo Ibarra was honored to lead and shape key technical discussions across three sessions of the official agenda. Here is what the conversation in Panama revealed:
01 · Latin America at the center of the investment debate
The Latin America Minister Roundtable, moderated by Martín Gustavo Ibarra, CEO of Araújo Ibarra International Business Consultants, brought together ministers and senior officials to examine the region’s most pressing opportunities and challenges. The Dominican Republic’s Minister of Industry, Commerce, and MSMEs, Eduardo Sanz Lovatón, declared that his country is entering a pivotal era for technology-driven free zones, emphasizing an aggressive pursuit of high-quality FDI focused on innovation, technology transfer, and specialized employment. The session made clear that Latin American zones are are repositioning as platforms for knowledge, nearshoring, and public-private collaboration.
02 · Free zones as a response to global food security
The agro-industry panel produced some of the most action-oriented exchanges of the Congress. Martín Gustavo Ibarra posed strategic questions to organizations including the FAO and regional ministries about the untapped potential of the world’s 5,000 free zones (800 of them in Latin America) as platforms to reduce global food costs and strengthen supply chains. The session featured cases such as Guyana, represented by its Chief Investment Officer, which has taken bold steps to attract investment in agriculture and food security through its free zone framework. The discussion confirmed that free zones are increasingly being looked at as instruments of structural economic transformation.
03 · The knowledge economy is already here
Juliana Villegas Restrepo, Director of International Promotion and Business Development at Araújo Ibarra, facilitated the session “Anchoring Tourism and Culture in the Knowledge Economy,” which brought together leaders from Panama, Argentina, Grenada and UN Tourism. The consensus was that attracting the next generation of investment requires modernized regulatory frameworks, stronger digital infrastructure, and ecosystems designed to retain talent and enable digital trade. This session also served as the platform for the launch of a joint publication by UN Tourism, the World FZO, UNIDO, GASEZ, and Araújo Ibarra, that expands these trends in depth.
04 · A sector investing in its own infrastructure
Beyond the sessions, the Congress produced a concrete institutional outcome. The World FZO announced the expansion of its “One Zone” digital platform, including a new website and dedicated members’ portal, designed to strengthen global connectivity, enhance member engagement, and support knowledge exchange across the free zones community. The platform integrates certification systems, training, research and advisory services, and performance benchmarking. It is a signal that the sector is investing in the infrastructure needed to coordinate at scale.
What Panama confirmed
The free zones leading the next decade will be those that combine institutional credibility with strategic positioning, regulatory agility, and the ability to integrate into global networks. Infrastructure remains important, but it is no longer sufficient. The sector is being redefined from within, and the leaders shaping that redefinition were in Panama City this May.
