Tocumen Airport: Expands Business Line

Posted on 2018-03-14

Tocumen, S.A., will expand its business line with the construction of a logistics area for the handling and manufacture of merchandise. The Tocumen airport will invest an approximate of 12.3 million dollars to enable the first 18 hectares where companies will be installed to make merchandise labeling, packaging of perishable products (food) and assembly of technological devices such as computers and cell phones, among other manufacturing activities.

This investment will be used to build basic infrastructure such as lighting, internal streets, parking, while the construction of the galleys will be the responsibility of the companies that are installed in the project, which will have a 20-year concession. The Panamanian terminal will be the first in the region to have a manufacturing logistics zone a few meters from the cargo terminal, said Carmen Carrizo de Pages, vice president of strategy and planning for Tocumen, S.A. "This model exists in countries like Singapore and Dubai, but in the region we will be the first," she said. Carrizo de Pages said that in April the process to select the companies that would be installed in the logistics area would begin. At the moment, some 12 companies have shown interest in settling in the logistics area. As a requirement, the interested parties must have a logistic operator certification granted by the Ministry of Commerce and Industries.

The companies that are chosen to settle in the complex will operate under Law 32 of 2011 of free zones. Tocumen hopes that pharmaceutical companies, technology, perishable products, and light manufacturing will be installed in the area. In accordance with the regulations that will govern the airport's logistics area, published in the Official Gazette on February 7, companies that are installed in the logistics area must re-export 80% of the merchandise they operate in the complex, while they can only leave the remaining 20% ​​for the local market.

With the regulation of Law 32, Tocumen will be exempted from income tax in the lease and sublease, while the companies that will operate in the area will not pay the income tax for their external operations and for their operations among themselves. To offer a better price per square meter and increase the attractiveness of the complex, Tocumen will be in charge of the operation and promotion of the logistics area that will be administered under Law 32 of 2011. A second phase is contemplated for the project with 35 additional hectares and each company that is installed in the area must acquire a minimum of 3 thousand square meters. Subtracting the space that will occupy the internal streets and other public facilities, from the first phase will be between 9 and 10 hectares for the construction of galleys. With this project, Tocumen seeks to increase the movement of cargo to and from Panama, by air. Monthly, Tocumen handles the transport of 12 thousand metric tons of merchandise.

Source: La Prensa