of companies moved to the ZLC. Starting in 1970, when Panama became an international banking center, more companies established themselves in the free zone, and in 1988 its area expanded to almost 300 hectares, becoming the largest free zone in the Western Hemisphere and the second largest in the world. following Hong Kong. In the 1980s, the free zone began to have competition from other free zones in Miami and the Caribbean, and it was also affected by the debt crisis in other Latin American countries that reduced their imports. In the 1990s, the Colon Free Zone regained its strength by becoming the Latin American headquarters for companies from Japan and recently industrialized countries in Asia, and a center for re-exports to the United States. 87% of all imports to the Free Zone during 2004 came mainly from Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United States, Japan, Korea, France, Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Germany. In the same year, Colombia was the largest buyer of merchandise, with almost 16% of all its exports. Other important buyers were Venezuela, the domestic market of Panama, Guatemala, Ecuador, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, the United States, Chile, Honduras, Brazil, Nicaragua and El Salvador. These countries acquired around 83% of all exports from the Colon Free Zone. In the 21st century, an idea promoted by some businessmen was to expand some of the benefits of the Colon Free Zone to the city of Colon to improve the socioeconomic conditions of the latter. The project is called Colón Puerto Libre. See also Index of international trade articles Multinational corporation Trade Free trade area References External links Economy of Panama States and territories established in 1948 Colón, Panama Special economic zones