Panama leads region in foreign investment

PANAMA was the bright spot in Latin America in 2014 in terms of foreign investment. While throughout the region foreign investment fell 16.4 percent, in Panama it increased by one percent and in dollar terms roped in 45 percent of the total direct investment in Central America

.A report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean published on Wednesday, May 27, showed that Panama received foreign investment worth $4.7 billion, representing a 1 percent increase from the previous year. That was 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), the highest in Latin America, where the average is 2 percent.
One of the largest financial operations was the acquisition of seven power stations in Panama and Costa Rica by the Colombian company Celsia for $840 million. They were purchased from GDF Suez of France.
The report also highlighted the expansion of the Panama Canal as a means of attracting foreign investment, as well as the expansion of mining, and in particular the investment in a copper project by Canada’s First Quantum Minerals that is expected to reach $6.4 billion by the time operations start in 2018.