The U.S. transferred operation of the Panama Canal to the Panamanians 20 years ago this week, a move that ultimately fueled the canal’s expansion and opened Houston for larger container ships bringing in consumer goods and outgoing tankers laden with products including liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas. And now that larger ships are […]

    A free trade agreement between Israel and Panama entered into force on January 1, granting preferential market access for goods and aiming to eliminate trade barriers between the countries. The bilateral trade deal, the first between Panama and a Middle Eastern country, was signed On May 17, 2018, by Economy Minister Eli Cohen […]

President Erdogan’s Canal Istanbul would provide an alternative route from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea through western Istanbul It would effectively trap 8 million people on a new artificial island in a city notoriously prone to earthquake Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s dream project of building a canal in Istanbul to rival those at […]

President of Panama Laurentino Cortizo denied today the privatization of the Institute of National Aqueducts and Sewers (IDAAN) and the Social Security Fund (CSS).   In statements to the press, Cortizo assured that his administration is working on the transformation and rescue of both public institutions so that they provide an efficient and sustainable service […]

The Sun Rise carrier transporting B.C. Ferries’ first two Island Class hybrid electric vessels has reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the Panama Canal. The carrier was positioned off the west coast of Costa Rica on its way north as of Friday. The new ferries left from Constanta, Romania, on Nov. 20. They are […]

Dan Mitchel writes in International Liberty According to bureaucrats at the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, so-called tax havens are terrible and should be shut down. Their position is grossly hypocritical since they get tax-free salaries while pushing for higher taxes on everyone else, but not very surprising since the OECD’s membership is […]

Panama continues near the bottom of the  Gender Inequality Index (GDI)  with a value of 0.460, placing it at position 108 of 189 countries. Well below neighboring countries, such as Costa Rica (0.285) and Colombia (0.411), which occupy positions 61 and 94, respectively.   The inequality that exists between men and women is one of […]

According to its citizens, Panama currently ranks fifth among the most corrupt countries in Latin America, despite a decline in the number of people who admitted to bribery payments.   According to Carlos Barsallo, president of the Panamanian chapter of Transparency International, more than 56 percent of the population believes that corruption has increased, a […]

Five years after the big announcement made by President Ortega and the Chinese company HKND, of the famous project to build a large inter-oceanic canal in Nicaragua, there are only tales. The mega-project promised at the time by the Ortega government was estimated at $50 billion and promised to be built in five years, from […]

While I am not vetting this project yet, I see a lot of big names associated with the planning and I hear that sales have begun.  I hope that they clean up their website as I could not get into it and repeated requests for information only triggered error messages. Plans have been unveiled for […]