The commercial activity in the Colon Free Zone (CFZ), located in the Panamanian Caribbean and considered the largest in the continent, reached 20,931 million dollars in 2018, representing a 6.5% increase compared to the previous year, the commercial emporium reported Tuesday.

Imports registered an increase of 7% compared to the data of 2017 and stood at 9.855 million dollars, while re-exports grew from 6.2% to 11.076 billion dollars.

The data was revealed on Tuesday during a ceremony in which it was announced the creation of a working group to recover the attractiveness of the free zone, integrated by the management of the commercial emporium -which depends on the central governments, the merchants themselves and the Logistics Business Council (LBC).

The free trade zone, which is located a few meters from the Atlantic entrance of the Panama Canal and is the second largest in the world after Hong Kong (China), employs more than 25,000 people and keeps about 3,000 companies dedicated to re-export.