The designation was announced this afternoon in Punta del Este, Uruguay, where the Cádiz Free Trade Zone has projected its potential this week, which has culminated with the announcement of its candidacy
The State delegate, Fran González, who has been ratified as a member of the AZFA Board of Directors, has received the transfer of headquarters from Carlos Wong, vice president of the AZFA; Enrique Buero, president of the Chamber of Free Zones; and Julio Rodríguez, executive director of AZFA
“We take the baton with the satisfaction and responsibility of organizing an international forum that projects Cádiz's leadership among the most modern, innovative and sustainable free zones 4.0,” stated González.
The Cádiz candidacy has been gaining weight with its consolidation as a reference around the Blue Economy and innovation, with the link created with free zones and Latin American entities and with the geopolitical context of strategic relations between Spain-Europe and Latin America
Cadiz, November 20, 2025
Cádiz will be the host city of the XXIX Conference of Ibero-American free zones in October 2026. This important appointment, by which the city will host the most relevant annual meeting of the Ibero-American free zones ecosystem, was announced tonight -Spanish time- within the framework of the closing of the second day of the free zones summit, which this year is being held in Punta del Este (Uruguay) and which has brought together more than 300 leaders and experts from 23 countries, among which is a delegation from the Cádiz Free Trade Zone, led by the State delegate, Fran González.
Fran González, who has also been ratified in the assembly as a member of the board of directors of the Association of Free Zones of the Americas (AZFA), has received the transfer of headquarters from Carlos Wong, vice president of the AZFA; Enrique Buero, president of the Chamber of Free Zones; and Julio Rodríguez, executive director of the AZFA, the organizing entity of the event, in an event that closed the second day of the conference and that gave the starting signal to the Spanish candidacy of Cádiz, which takes over from the Uruguayan Punta del Este, where the current summit ends this Friday.
The Assembly of the Association of Free Zones of the Americas, whose board of directors includes the delegate of the State of Cádiz, has met coinciding with the Conference of Free Zones, as is usually the case, and has debated the convenience of the next meeting being held in the city of Cádiz, which was nominated as the venue. Only two European cities have hosted the conference so far, Cádiz in 2002 and Barcelona in 2023, so this will be the second time that the Cadiz capital will host the event.
After the screening of the video 'Luz de Bahía', which presents the potential and talent of the Cadiz province in productive sectors such as logistics, the blue economy, gastronomy and culture, Fran González spoke by thanking the organizers for the designation of Cádiz as the headquarters for 2026 after a few days of "intense work, the exchange of experiences and the transfer of knowledge between the free zones and the business community on both sides of the Atlantic. You have left us very high. bar and we will work intensely all this year so that Cádiz 2026 is equally a success of organization and participation on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.”
The highest representative of the Cádiz Consortium has emphasized the dimensioning of the event that will be "a great opportunity. A city event, with national and international projection that will place Cádiz as the world capital of the free zones on both sides of the Atlantic and where the potential of these logistical spaces for attracting investments in times of global geopolitical uncertainties will be made visible."
Fran González, who has been accompanied by the director of Business Promotion, Marta Domínguez, and the coordinator of Incubazul and Blue Core, Jose Manuel Fedriani, has made a very positive assessment of the appointment that has materialized "thanks to the intense work of these years. We are doing things well. The Zona Franca has managed to reference Cádiz as a Blue Economy hub thanks to the Incubazul and Blue Core projects and the celebration of the three editions of the Blue Zone Forum; it has cleaned up the accounts of the entity until it managed to provide benefits for the first time in thirteen years; and has strengthened alliances with the Spanish free zones and those on the other side of the Atlantic, work that has allowed it to host this important international summit next year," highlighted González, who has also framed the candidacy in a State strategy in which "relations between Spain-Europe and Latin America are key to geopolitical stability and progress."
"From now on we begin to work on the organization of the XXIX Conference of Free Trade Zones of Ibero-America. It is a challenge and a great opportunity because the summit makes the leap to a Spanish city and the European continent. We are convinced that Cádiz will be up to the task, we have the best letter of presentation after the organization of the last three editions of the Blue Zone Forum events that reference us as a success in participation and organization with an average of more than 1,200 participants and top-level speakers.
Fran González, in a round table on free zones in disruptive times
The appointment of Cádiz as the venue for the next Conference of Ibero-American Free Zones has been the culmination of an intense week with a complete agenda of visits to other free zones and technological spaces in Montevideo and Punta del Este and with a program of presentations by experts and round tables, in one of which the delegate of the Free Zone intervened, in which he explained how the Cádiz tax center has adapted to the new reality with its industry model. 4.0, applying innovation and with projects around the Blue Economy.
Fran Gonzaléz has been part of the round table “Free Trade Zones: Challenges and Opportunities in Disruptive Times”, in which they have participated together with the Cádiz manager Andrés Prada, director of Megalabs Globa, a large Latin American pharmaceutical company; Carlos Wong, executive director of the Coyol Free Zone of Costa Rica; and Luca Estebenet, representative of Epic Aerospace, an Argentine company that develops equipment for towing satellites; all of them moderated by Fernando Carazo, general manager of the La Lima Free Zone, also from Costa Rica.
In his speech he was categorical in stating that "the Free Zone of Cádiz has been able to adapt to the times and we believe in a fundamental and necessary application of innovative tools such as Artificial Intelligence and technological advances to the management of the Free Zone and its flagship projects such as Incubazul and Blue Core. The Free Zone has implemented a 100% digital model for its management, “which allows total traceability of documentation from start to finish.”
Fran González has winked at the free zones and public and private entities in Latin America and has insisted that "joint work makes us strong. We are committed to working together with other free zones and with entities such as maritime and naval clusters, universities, companies in the sector, etc., to create synergies and strengths. In fact, from the Cádiz Free Zone we have been promoting in recent years the consolidation of strong collaboration ties with Ibero-American countries to explore and advance in synergies and collaborations that generate opportunities for the business community on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Along these lines, the visits to different venues in Montevideo and Punta del Este have served to strengthen ties that were already initiated in previous trade missions, not only to Uruguay but also to Colombia and Argentina and have reinforced contacts to promote opportunities for companies interested in commercial operations in foreign markets, especially in Latin America.