It seems that the article that I posted last week from the Economist is getting passed around and recieving some attention. Hopefully this stays on the front burner and is taken seriously by some people in the government here in Panama.
Source: radiolaprimerisima.com
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
The goal of the current Government to convert Panama to the Singapore of America appears increasingly difficult, among other reasons, the poor quality of its educational system and little transparency of public institutions. So believes the President of the Association of economists of Panama, Raúl Moreira, who asserts that, the country has much to do to reach the level of Singapore. The observation was made in response to an appraisal made by Jonathan Menkos Zeissig, Chief Economist of the Central American Institute for fiscal studies (ICEFI), who believes that Panama has a lot of potential to become the Singapore of Latin America. David Saied, also of the school, added to those negative aspects, public investment, which, according to him, is not focused on the real problems of the country. We have problems in education, but prefer to build coastal highways with money that could build 700 schools. There is a poor security, but investment in public works is five times higher, and the same applies to the judicial system said Horacio Estribí, exfuncionario of the Ministry of economy and finance. The great success of Singapore is the fight against corruption and respect for the laws. More importantly institutions, contrary to Panama where institutional infrastructure is destroyed. This is a cornerstone to achieve sustainable development. If not, tomorrow will have a very nice city, but with anarchy in the area of governance, he said. Menkos coincided with local economists to point out that the need to strengthen democratic institutions appears as a barrier to the economic and social success of the country. Most importantly, he recommended that perhaps we can rescue Panama and make changes in its public policy to enable it to overcome these challenges successfully in the next five to 10 years.
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Sometimes too much democracy is not good. Panama is a republic, with a representative government. There is no doubt that the educational situation needs work, but this is being accomplished slowly but surely. Of great interest is how the President is rewarding good students with cash awards.