During his visit to Lima for Semana de la Industria 2026, Martín Gustavo Ibarra, CEO of Araújo Ibarra International Business Consultants and WTC Free Zone Global Leader, received a Diploma of Honor from the Congress of Peru, recognizing his decades-long contribution to the development of free zones and special economic zones across Latin America.
The distinction was awarded during his participation as a panelist in the Central Forum, the event’s main stage, where he joined a discussion titled “International Experience of SEZs: Opportunities and Challenges for Peru.” The session, hosted by the Sociedad Nacional de Industrias, brought together voices from across the region to examine how Peru can strengthen its own special economic zone framework by drawing on lessons learned elsewhere in Latin America and beyond.
The recognition reflects a career that spans more than five decades of advisory work with governments, multilateral organizations, and businesses leaders across the region. Martín Gustavo Ibarra has played a direct role in shaping the regulatory frameworks and investment strategies behind some of Latin America’s most established free zones, work that laid much of the foundation for what would later become the Free Zones Go Global model.
For the Congress of Peru to formally recognize that body of work matters beyond the individual honor. It signals that policymakers in the region increasingly see free zones not as a technical or secondary policy tool, but as a strategic lever for national competitiveness, one that requires the kind of specialized, long-term expertise that companies like Araújo Ibarra International Business Consultants have built over time.
As Peru continues to evaluate how to modernize its own SEZ framework, this recognition reinforces a message that runs through every conversation Free Zones Go Global has with governments across the region. The zones that will lead the next phase of regional development are the ones willing to learn from what has already worked, and to build on it deliberately.
About Free Zones Go Global
Free Zones Go Global is a foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction model for free zones, led jointly by the World Trade Centers Association and Araújo Ibarra International Business Consultants. With a global network of 300+ business hubs, the model combines international reach with 55 years of expertise in free zone strategy, regulation, and development, strengthening each zone’s global positioning and investor appeal.
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