Alejandro Varela at Fox News Latino reports on the recent visit to Panama by Spain’s development Minister.

Spanish Development Minister Ana Pastor on Wednesday applauded the work to expand the Panama Canal and this capital’s metro, the two most significant infrastructure projects under way in this Central American nation and in which Spanish companies are participating.

Pastor got into the details of the canal expansion project accompanied by Canal Minister Roberto Roy, chief administrator Jorge Quijano and top executives from GUPC, the consortium carrying out the project headed by the Spanish firm Sacyr.

“After almost two years, when I came here for the first time, I’m finding today that the work is very far along, almost 95 percent finished,” the minister told Efe.

“I want to thank the Canal minister because without his impetus this project would not have been able to be undertaken, and the Panamanian government for its trust in Spanish companies,” Pastor emphasized.

Her previous visit to Panama was made to help find a solution to the crisis that temporarily paralyzed the expansion project in February 2014.

“Our friend Ana Pastor has been instrumental during these past two years in being able to move forward on all the processes of carrying out the Canal expansion project,” Roy told Efe.

Roy also accompanied Pastor to the Line 1 installations of the Panama City Metro, the first in Central America, which has been operating for a year and the construction of which was carried out by Spain’s FCC along with Brazil’s Odebrecht.

The Spanish minister, along with FCC president Alicia Alcocer, made a brief tour of one of the Line 1 metro cars and took advantage of the occasion to hail the fact that the winning bid on the contract to construct Line 2 also was recently submitted by the FCC-Odebrecht alliance.

“Since 2009, Spain has obtained contracts in Panama valued at more than 6 billion euros ($6.75 billion), which is very important for the consolidation of its companies, its internationalization and the creation of jobs,” Pastor said. “Spanish companies are creating more than 15,000 jobs in Panama.

After her visit to the Panama Canal and the Metro, Pastor headed to the presidential palace for a luncheon with President Juan Carlos Varela. EFE