Changing the model of progress by betting on more complex and higher value-added activities, without restricting the entry of qualified foreign labor, is part of what the Panamanian business sector proposes to boost long-term economic growth.
In a statement, the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Panama (CCIAP) reflects on the need to make significant adjustments in the country’s productive matrix to achieve long-term sustainable economic development.
From the CCIAP statement:
The Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Panama closely observes the recent analysis of the economist Ricardo Hausmann on our country’s economy, agreeing with him on the pressing need to attract talent from other nations to strengthen our opportunities for advancement as a society.
The country’s economic growth has been the highest in the region in recent decades, but it shows an increasingly marked slowdown, which makes it advisable, in order to avoid the effects of adverse cyclical conditions, to change its model of progress for more complex or sophisticated activities, says Hausmann, director of the Center for International Development at Harvard University.
According to this analysis, the key to Panama becoming a regional power is to replicate and extend experiences already developed here, such as those of Panama Pacifico and the City of Knowledge, based on the fact that the country leads the Americas in terms of foreign investment in relation to its GDP.
Read full statement (In Spanish).
Tom
The Panama Banking System is closed to foreign people unless and until they become legal residents (obtain a resident visa) and only then can they apply for a bank account and then wait 3-4 months for an answer which maybe is NO. Once they obtain a bank account then they must endure the pain and difficulty to make or receive a wire transfer. Panama started with more assets (the Panama Canal) than Singapore did but Panama will never be a Singapore until it quits letting the USA dictate and interfere with Panamanians ability and right to govern itself as the “Sovereign Nation” that it is. Panama used to be a financial and banking center of Central and part of South America and now it is not any longer. More foreign people are leaving Panama than those immigrating to Panama. Panama needs a second currency or print a secured Balboa to bring life back to the declining economy.