Panama announced Tuesday it has opened an embassy in China after cutting diplomatic ties with Taiwan in June. “The opening of the Republic of Panama’s embassy in the People’s Republic of China was done in accordance with the principles that frame the diplomatic relations between both countries,” the foreign ministry said in a […]

Everyone wishes that they could duplicate Los Suenos in Costa Rica.  The truth of the matter is that without more mariners, a 5 star hotel and direct international  flights to a nearby airport, it will never happen.  While this is sad for Chiriqui where I live, we have enough fishing pressure already without adding a […]

Panamanian producers report that every week between 5 thousand and 7 thousand hundredweight of tomatoes enter the country illegally from Costa Rica, in addition to other agricultural products. Producers in the province of Chiriquí claim that smuggling from the neighboring country is not limited to agricultural products, but also occurs with materials for production. Tomatos are the […]

  Uruguay became the first country in the world to allow the sale of marijuana for recreational use in pharmacies. But on the very first day it became available in stores, the product ran out in all pharmacies and the registration system collapsed. The demand on the first day of sales — this Wednesday, July 19 […]

  Canyon Crest Academy students have come together to form a new nonprofit called STEAM in Panama. The organization’s focus is on sponsoring a robotics team for middle school students at the Metropolitan School of Panama. Currently, Panama does not have a regional robotics representation in the FIRST Lego League and the group aims to […]

The Tourism Authority in Panama estimates that the supply of residences in the country that are rented out to tourists now represents 20% of hotel occupancy. Hotel occupancy remains at the same levels as a year ago, around 50%, according to data from the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic.  According to hoteliers and […]

The company has proposed to the government that a tax collection scheme be implemented for property owners that rent out rooms to tourists using its web platform. Airbnb’s idea is to establish a system similar to the one recently implemented in Puerto Rico, where the company signed an agreement with the government to collect taxes on […]

  Airbnb has been very successful in many parts of the world, but one of its fastest-growing markets has been Mexico City, where activity nearly tripled in 2016. In early 2017, Airbnb opened its offices in Mexico City and to avoid the controversies that have occurred in other parts of the world, it made an agreement with the […]

The world’s leading registry, Panama, will mark its centennial on Dec. 15. In the months ahead, the Panama Maritime Authority plans various activities and awareness campaigns under the slogan ‘Panama’s 100 years of registering ships—joining ports, seas and people.’ The centennial deserves special recognition, according to Panama Maritime Authority administrator Jorge Barakat Pitty. Campaigns will […]

In 2016 the countries in the region exported $2,393 million worth of bananas, and 78% of them went to the United States, the Netherlands and Italy. Figures from the Information System on the fresh and dried banana market in Central America compiled by the Business Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData: [Figure caption = “Click to interact […]