Could Panama become the Singapore of Latin America?
Could Panama become the Singapore of Latin America?
The service sector drives 10-percent growth, but half the population is living in poverty
José Meléndez Panama City 12 ABR 2012 - 16:48 CET
[font size=1]The waterfront and skyscrapers of Panama City. / HERVÉ HUGHES (AFP)[/font]
Over the course of the last decade, Panama has experienced the kind of rapid growth more usually associated with South East Asia: it is Latin America's fastest-growing economy, registering GDP growth of 10.6 percent last year, building on 9.2 percent in 2010. This watery isthmus, bridging Central America with the landmass of South America, has gone from being a sleepy backwater dependent on revenue from its canal to an economy increasingly driven by financial services.
The canal remains an important part of the country's economy, as does its shipping industry and the re-export zones around the canal.
But there are signs that the country's vertiginous expansion may not be sustainable. Many of the skyscrapers that have changed the skyline of the capital, Panama City, are empty, and there are growing suspicions about the origin of the money used to build them: this is a country with a long tradition of laundering cash.
Panama promotes itself as a bridge between the Americas, and a link between Asia and the West, the perfect location for international companies in the financial services sector, as well as transport and telecommunications. And there are a great many success stories that bear this out. At the same time, it is clear that the country's growth has been distributed unequally.
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