Chamber of Commerce backs call for foreign talent

Panama’ Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (Cciap), has reacted enthusiastically to the recent analysis of the Panamanian economy economist Ricardo Hausmann, and the urgent need to attract talent from other countries to strengthen advancement opportunities in society.

In its  weekly statement  the Chamber highlights that Panama’s economic growth has been the largest in the region in recent decades, but is showing  an increasingly marked slowdown.

They agree  that, in the analysis, the key for Panama to become a regional power is to replicate and extend already developed experiences such as those of Panama Pacifico and the City of Knowledge, based on the fact that the country is leading the Americas in terms of foreign investment in relation to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“Far from restricting the entry of foreign talent, we must promote it with a significant change in our culture to see, in those who arrive, not competitors but allies in the common effort to expand our border of opportunities”, says the Chamber in accordance with the economist. by the expert

“ Artificially created ” restrictions for careers such as engineering, architecture, law, and medicine should be removed. By limiting the practice of external professionals, and not having a world-class education, we limit the country’s ability to increase knowledge, innovation, and technology in addition to diminishing our competitive advantages,” says the Chamber.

On the other hand, they point out that the fact that Panama is  down the line  in international

education measurements, well below the world and regional average,  “speaks of the error of preventing foreign professors from teaching in universities “, while other countries seek, precisely, the importation of such wealth of knowledge.

The Cciap anticipates that proposals such as those raised will find resistance from those who seek to protect their own bailiwicks.