China to study Panama-Chiriqui rail link
ON THE HEELS of the news that Air China will be initiating two flights a week to Panama in March 2018, President Juan Carlos Varela announced on Monday, November 20, that an agreement has been signed for China to carry out the pre-feasibility study of a rail system that would include a passenger and cargo train linking the provinces of Panama and Chiriqui The president and his 60-plus delegation of politicians and businessmen traveled on Monday from Beijing city to Shanghai on a high-speed train.
In a keynote speech at Renmin University of China where he was awarded an honorary doctorate and appointed as an honorary adviser to the university’s Center for Latin American Studies Varela pledged to “enhance pragmatic cooperation in all fields with China and play an active part in the Belt and Road endeavor (the plan to replicate the recently completed China to London road-rail link, with a link running from South America to Alaska)
“The Belt and Road Initiative is a very good one. It will connect all the ports, airports among various countries to achieve connectivity and common development of all countries. Panama, the first Latin American country to support the initiative, will actively participate in it,” said Varela. He also pledged firm adherence to the one-China principle.
