What are the benefits of free-trade zones? Carlos Wong, CEO & General Director, Coyol Free Zone and Isidoro Hodara, Vice President, Zonamerica discuss how free-trade zones help draw new businesses into local markets and promote economic growth.

The first question is why are these zones set-up in the first place? Carlos explains Coyol Free Zone was orginally set-up to fill the needs of medical device companies wishing to reach new markets. By focusing on industry verticals like healthcare, Coyol has been able to build an ecosystem that supports American companies as they scale internationally. Isidoro says that geographically, Uruguay is in the perfect location for regional distribution, therefore Zonamerica was created to support companies that want to reach new South American markets.

Each location differs in terms of the benefits they can provide to client companies - from recruitment programmes to assistance in operatiions and scaling to special tax benefits or financial incentives to help a company get going. Companies interested in bringing their operations to a free-trade zone first need to meet the developer to establish their needs and also to measure market interest for their products in that particular area.

Watch the full interview to hear more about free-tade zones and how they assist companies going global.