Business in Panama. Investing Set-up Foreign Direct Investment

Course contents (Business in America)

Summary

The population of Panama is approximately 2.8 million, about 52 percent of which is urban. Spanish is the Official language of the country

Panama City is the country's capital and the principal commercial center. Colon, the country's second largest city, is located on the Caribbean Coast. Its economy is dependent on traffic through the Panama Canal and on business activity in the Colon Free Trade Zone, the largest duty-free zone in the Americas.
The Panama Canal is approximately 80 kilometers long between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This waterway was cut through one of narrowest saddles of the isthmus that joins North and South America.
The Canal uses a system of locks -compartments with entrance and exit gates. The locks function as water lifts: they raise ships from sea level (the Pacific or the Atlantic) to the level of Gatun Lake (26 meters above sea level); ships then sail the channel through the Continental Divide.
The Canal itself is undergoing a modernization and maintenance program of up to $1 billion.

Major industries in Panama: Banking, construction, petroleum refining, brewing, tourism, cement and other construction materials, sugar milling, shipping and agriculture

(This unit is only available in Spanish)