Cali inaugurated the country’s first service free trade zone: Zonamerica

Connecting the world, encourage creative minds, empower entrepreneurial talent and make Cali a service and technology export platform, those are some of the many benefits Colombia’s first Service Free Trade Zone –Zonamerica- has to offer, the Uruguayan capital company of most impact and projection ever established in Santiago de Cali.

As proclaimed by Orlando Dovat, president of Zonamerica Uruguay, during the official inauguration ceremony carried out on October 25^th, at the facilities of this new service park, after stating that: “Zonamerica is the first Uruguayan company settled in Cali, with the merger of two important groups in the country: The Carvajal Organization and Zonamerica Group. This park shows an innovative project: The establishment of a Service Free Trade Zone. After evaluating throughout the country, we chose to settle in Cali, because is an extraordinarily productive investment that generates employment and attracts more investment, while promoting the city of Cali”. 

The official inauguration was attended by Cali’s City Hall, the Investment Promotion Agency –Invest Pacific-, Carvajal Corporate Group, The Chamber of Commerce of Cali, Procolombia, among other local authorities, business people, guilds, opinion leaders, local and domestic governmental entities, as well as an important Uruguayan delegation.  They all had the opportunity to tour around the business center and the different spaces offered by Zonamerica to entrepreneurs and global service companies.    

Jaime Miller, General Manager for Zonamerica Colombia, introduced the project’s official figures and impact, having 38 hectares, an eco-friendly building of 173.000 m2; 18 buildings, of which are already running, and a forecast of more than 17.000 jobs. He furthermore referred how Etix Everywhere and Compunet will install -in Zonamerica- the first state of the art datacenter ever located outside Bogotá.   

“We must feel proud of this investment; Cali is a friendly city, with a special feature… nobody is a foreigner here! We are all locals!  You have settled in the right place and I’m completely sure this momentum will promote success and progress. I want to thank you for having believed in Cali, Colombia” Stated proudly Mr. Maurice Armitage, Mayor of Santiago de Cali.

So far this year, twelve foreign and national companies have established in Cali, with Invest Pacific’s support and partnership, as an agency in charge of promoting the city’s competitive attractive.  All this as a result of the synergy achieved between the public and private sector, where the City Hall is one of the key promoters of citizen’s economic, social and corporate development and progress.

It is precisely in Cali where international companies such as DirectTv, and Sitel, along with other very important national and local ones conform an ecosystem of about 1.800 companies that provide high added value service to different national and international clients, with more than 25 years of experience.  Furthermore, service companies have noticed Cali being a thriving city with qualified human talent.

Cali is one of the most attractive cities in the world for service outsourcing given its competitive costs, qualified human talent, excellent hour and geographic location, plus having a whole education supply, and a business and entrepreneurial ecosystem that has enable it to catapult as the ideal place for companies such as Zonamerica to settle in.

More information:

Andrea del Pilar Barrero
Marketing and Communications Director
Email: abarrero@investpacific.org