As the thoroughfare for most commercial freight ships, Panama receives goods from virtually averywhere in the world. Visitors and resident alike can delight in shopping adventures nearly all-day long as Panama offers tremendous buys on everything from the last fashions to French perfumes and Swiss watches.
The savy shoppers can hunt for bargain-priced english China, Irish linens, Japanese electronics - virtually everything the world offers, on the longest shopping street in the world.
Open-air market offer other opportunities for varied fresh produce and fruits and beautiful native culture crafts, especially "molas" from the region of San Blas. Panama has many great areas for shopping, but the main shoppping "centers" are in Panama City on the Pacific side of the Canal, and Colon, with its Free Zone, on the Caribbean side. Panama City's Via España is the city's main shopping area, with Avenida Central offering about 20 blocks of nonstop boutiques, curio shops and more. The Colon Free Zone covers 94 acres of warehouses with inviting shop fronts and a world of goods from around the world - including (computers, cameras and color TV's.
Panama City Shopping
Colon's Free Zone

Shopping Malls in Panama City

Colon's Free Zone
It started operations in 1948 and occupies about 600 acres. It is located near the Atlantic Entrance of the Panama Canal.
Divided in two big areas: one located in Colon City, segregated from the city itself by a wall; and the other relatively new, in the France Field area, which is designated for warehouses covering 130 acres and at a distance of only 400 yards from the Colon commercial sector.
Services Nowadays there are more than 1400 companies established in this place, which can count on all the services and facilities offered by the Free Zone, for importing, storing, assembling, re-packing and re-exporting products from all over the world: from all types of electric appliances to pharmaceutical products, liquor, cigarettes, office and home furniture, clothing, shoes, jewelry, toys, etc.
It is considered the "Trading Showcase" of Central and South America as well as for the Caribbean region. The Colon free Zone is an important supplier of goods to other free zones such as the one on San Andres Island (Colombia) and Margarita (Venezuela), and also the Aruba Trade Center. All that gives the Colon Free Zone the right to be called "The First Free zone of the Western Hemisphere".
Some of Colons Fee Zone advantages are: The existence of modern seaports with the most modern facilities, container ports, direct access through the Pan-American Highway, air access, and trains daily transporting containers from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. Dividends arising from external operations or from those operations that are executed or consumed abroad are tax-free. There are no Capital Investment Taxes. Municipal or Local Taxes do not apply to firms operating in the Free Zone and there are no taxes on shipments to or from the Free Zone from or to anywhere in the world.
How can you establish a presence? A company can build its own store, warehouse or industrial plant on lots leased from the Free Zone Administration. A minimum of 60% of the merchandise has to be exported. Lot lease agreements are signed for 20-year periods and the commercial buildings are leased for one-year renewable periods. A representative or agent, whose clients can be any number of companies, may build a warehouse under the same terms and conditions as an individual company. Any particular company may enter into a private agreement with a representative or agent who is already established in the Free Zone, so they can receive, store and distribute its merchandise or product in accordance with the instructions given by the companies. The ownership title stays with the company that owns the merchandise. In this case, also 60% will have to be exported.
Companies or natural persons can rent spaces in the public warehouses in the Colon Free Zone, at a monthly rate of ½% on the F.O.B. value of the stored merchandise.

For more details, write to:
Lic. Jorge Fernández Colon
Free Zone General Manager
P.O. Box 1118 Colon,
Republic of Panama
Fax: (507) 245-2165