Poverty remains a regional threat

WHILE PANAMA lays claim to one of the world’s leading growth economies, and prepares to lavish $4 million  on  a canal expansion extravaganza, it is part of a region  where  one of every three people who emerged from poverty more than a decade ago is in danger of returning to that  condition.

The stark news emerges from a United Nations Program for Development report.

The document refers to 30 million people in the region, considered “ultra vulnerable” because they came out of poverty but they did not reach economic levels of the middle class.

This group would not be prepared to resist the effects of a financial crisis or a natural disaster.

U.N. Regional Director Jessica Faitea explained that, to prevent this setback, it is important to begin to protect the gains achieved in recent years.

For this, she suggested promoting comprehensive, and inclusive policies to support populations that suffer discrimination, such as women, people of African descent and homosexuals.

Panama is lagging on all fronts, with, in spite of a six percent or  more annual growth in GDP for over a decade, a widening gap between the haves and have-nots, with corruption in the judiciary and government syphoning off scores of millions from the public purse.

The elected representatives of the people in the National Assembly are seen by observers as  more interested in feathering their own nests than improving the lot of the people who elected them, while protecting themselves  from justice with self-serving immunity laws, and introducing bills to allow corrupt businesses to continue to do business with the government, and letting perpetrators of major scams  walk the streets.

Minister of Social Development Alcibiades Vásquez acknowledged that Panama does not escape from this reality, so the government is seeking to reduce the informal economy and implement better educational programs reports La Prensa.