Welcome to the Panama Weekly News Roundup! Here’s the latest.
The potholes in Panama City are tweeting their own repair requests.
Panama City has a bit of a pothole problem. With heavy rains, and lots of action, many roads are in need of repaving, and Panamanians have gotten tired of waiting for a fix. That’s why, local TV news program Telemetro Reporta has decided to tweet about it. They have placed auto-tweeting motion sensors at some of the city’s worst potholes, and the results have been hilarious.
“My next car will be a tank,” tweeted one young driver. “My baby is going to be born blurred due to so much shaking,” declared a pregnant woman. “Dampers, arrowhead, wheels… these wholes have broken every piece of my car,” said a cab driver.
Source: Quartz.com
Seven Holland America Line Ships Offer More Ways to Experience the Panama Canal in 2015-16.
With the Canal Expansion nearing its end, and Panama tourism numbers climbing by the month, Holland America has decided to make cruising there more accessible.
From September 2015 through May 2016, ms Amsterdam, ms Maasdam, ms Nieuw Amsterdam, ms Oosterdam, ms Veendam and ms Westerdam will make 11 transits between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans from six departure cities. Guests can set sail from Boston, Mass.; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; San Diego and San Francisco, Calif.; Seattle, Wash.; and Vancouver, British Columbia.
In addition to the Panama Canal transit, the 14- to 22-day cruises include a variety of port calls along the way, making each voyage all the more enriching. On the full transits the ships visit destinations in Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua and the Caribbean, along with Half Moon Cay, Holland America Line’s award-winning private Bahamian island.
Source: MarketWatch
Panama is the Best Country for Expat Entrepreneurs
Panama has a lot to offer entrepreneurs, both local and expats. It has a great business climate, favorable tax structure, and lots of opportunities to set up a variety of different businesses. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal’s blog, one woman highlighted her experience, and why Panama was the perfect choice to relocate her business. Here are some of her reasons:
My husband and I had managed businesses in eight countries. Based on that experience, I made a list of things important to the expat entrepreneur, as follows:
-
Quality and cost of infrastructure, especially Internet and banking
-
Quality, availability, and cost of English-speaking labor
-
The country’s approach to taxation
-
The current administration’s perspective on foreign business and foreign investment
-
Residency and work permit options
-
Cost of doing business, especially office rent
-
Ease of setting up a company
-
Stability of the local currency (if other than the U.S. dollar)
-
Time zone relative to the business’ intended marketplace
-
Local labor law
-
Local standard of living
Source: The Wall St. Journal (Blog)
Colombian Bank to Invest $100 million in Panama in 2015
One of Latin America’s biggest banks has made a significant commitment to Panama, both for investing and developing a regional headquarters. Banistmo came on the scene about two years ago, when they bought out HSBC’s regional branches. Now, they’re slated to invest around $100 million. Read more from our latest blog post.
With Banistmo’s lofty plans for modernizing their banking technology and systems in Panama, they are not only attracting Panamanians, but also incentivizing large companies to do business with them here. Lowering the risk of investing, and making their systems more secure, and easier to manage, Banistmo is trying to promote Panama as an ideal, and more importantly, safe place to bank. If their investment into their own infrastructure upgrades is successful, more companies will feel secure about investing in Panama, especially in regards to future and stable growth.
Banistmo’s goal is to be THE Panamanian bank, and in order to do that; they need to generate more local jobs and business. One big step, and a big chunk of the bank’s $100 million investment, is to create a massive regional headquarters in Panama City.
Read more about Banistmo investing in Panama
