Panama has the tools needed to get back on the path of economic growth and social progress

With the aim of making Panama a more sustainable country with innovation as the main pillar for recovery in areas such as agriculture and tourism, CAF—development bank of Latin America—Vice President for the Private Sector, Jorge Arbache, participated in the CADE 2022 Annual Conference of Executives, organized by the Panamanian Association of Business Executives, APEDE, Chiriquí Chapter. This year the slogan was “For a Sustainable Panama: transformation of the economic, institutional and social model for the Western Region.”

CAF’s Vice President for the Private Sector, Jorge Arbache, affirmed that the region has great potential for tourism, logistics and institutional productive development. This has already been consolidated in recent years, thanks to a successful governance model that is evident today in regional competitiveness complexes. They have helped identify the main local productive advantages and propose an investment opportunities portfolio to bolster economic growth.

The official stressed that Panama showed an average growth of 6.6% per year during the period from 2010 to 2019, far exceeding the Latin America and Caribbean growth rate, which was 2.3%. This growth helped the nation double per capita income over 10 years and become one of the countries with the highest GDP in the region.

According to Arbache, Panama’s growth last year was 15%, one of the highest globally. This would therefore entail overcoming the challenge of establishing itself as a high-income economy and continuing to close the socio-economic gaps between the regions, while improving access to goods and services for the most vulnerable populations. To this end, it is essential to promote growth generators.

“CAF supports initiatives that improve the development of the agricultural sector with a multi-sectoral approach, promoting alliances and the formation of high productivity chains,” said Arbache.

Elisa de Suárez de Gómez, president of APEDE, stated that one cannot continue doing the same things while expecting different results. She stressed that to boost economic growth we must think beyond traditional approaches, innovate and expand our production bases, as well as transform and fortify institutions, as that is how we will attract economic investments.

She stressed that, as a country, we must keep in mind important factors such as transparency, justice and, above all, structured and reliable public institutions. That is the only way for people to have confidence that the right decisions will be made, contribute to the construction of a better Panama, bring about social changes, encourage development, and at the same time reduce gaps and inequality.