{"id":11938,"date":"2014-11-10T14:00:41","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T19:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/?p=11938"},"modified":"2014-11-10T14:00:41","modified_gmt":"2014-11-10T19:00:41","slug":"investing-in-panama-the-view-from-my-apartment-says-it-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/investing-in-panama-the-view-from-my-apartment-says-it-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Investing in Panama: The view from my apartment says it all"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PANAMA82\"<\/a><\/p>\n

James McKeige writes this great story in MoneyWeek,\u00a0 I\u2019ve been in Panama for two weeks now and I love it.<\/p>\n

Hot and humid, it\u2019s the antithesis of the Andean winter I recently left behind me in Chile. Admittedly, it\u2019s not ideal weather for traipsing around in a suit, and the congested streets could do with Chile\u2019s transport system \u2013 Panama\u2019s nascent metro has just one line \u2013 but there is a great buzz about the place.<\/p>\n

Over the last ten years, the country has been transformed from a tropical backwater to one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. New buildings have sprung up to give Panama City a skyline to rival New York, while the place teems with hundreds of thousands of Colombians, Venezuelans, Gringos and Chinese that have come to work here.<\/p>\n

Britain also has a big presence in Panama. Maybe not so much in terms of people, but the UK is the second biggest investor here. British firms are making big investments in real estate, telecoms and logistics.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a UK-listed firm that\u2019s making a big Panama play in a completely new sector for the country. It\u2019s involved in a transformational $6.4bn mega project that could reward both Panama and UK investors.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll talk more about that later, but for now let\u2019s look at what makes Panama\u2019s economy tick.<\/p>\n

The last 15 years have been great for Panama<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Panama is a small country, and Panama City, for all its dynamism, is also small \u2013 home to just 1.5 million people. In fact, the place is so small that from the top of my apartment block I have a pretty good view of the main drivers of Panama\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

If you look deep into the background, you can see a row of ships waiting for their turn to enter Panama\u2019s famed canal.<\/p>\n

Of course, Panama\u2019s had the canal for a century, but it\u2019s only recently that the country has been able to really benefit. The US only handed the Panamanians control of the canal in 1999 (which perhaps makes the US stance over Britain and the Suez a touch hypocritical).<\/p>\n