On March 15, 2021, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism issued Decree 278 of 2021, which implements a new regime of permanent and transitory free zones in the country.  This, with the purpose of expanding the scope traditionally granted to free zones and promoting business projects that are evidenced in the value chain, investment in technology, employment generation, and sophistication of goods and services offered. For this purpose, the best national and international practices and standards were taken as a reference.  

We will now explain the main changes introduced by this Decree:

1. Intangible assets are recognized (in accordance with the applicable Intellectual Property regulations) as part of the Investment (but only up to 20% of the total investment);
2. Industrial users of the free trade zone are allowed to make sales through the internet, i.e. e-commerce, as long as it is carried out through the modality of postal traffic and express shipments;
3. A Technical Committee of Free Trade Zones is created, which has the purpose of strengthening the competitiveness of the zone;
4. It is established that for the declaration of permanent free zones the operating user must submit its proposal for a promotion plan, which must be aligned with global trends in international trade in relation to digitization, information technology, e-commerce, export of services and in general the generation of value of industries 4.0;
5. It opens the possibility of modifying the declaration of existence of specialized permanent free zones of service, to permanent free zone dedicated exclusively to the provision of services of science, technology, innovation, culture, knowledge or any other activity of export or support services required to perform or provide these services;
6. The required employment and/or investment commitments are reduced if certain annual exports are foreseen;
7. A term of 30 years is established to request the extension of both permanent and special permanent free zones. 

Thus, this new regime simplifies all the requirements and procedures for accessing free trade zones, in order to promote the implementation of a 4.0 model, which will increase the country's competitiveness and attract greater investment.