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Background:
With US backing, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903 and
promptly signed a treaty with the US allowing for the construction
of a canal and US sovereignty over a strip of land on either
side of the structure (the Panama Canal Zone). The Panama
Canal was built by the US Army Corps of Engineers between
1904 and 1914. On 7 September 1977, an agreement was signed
for the complete transfer of the Canal from the US to Panama
by the end of 1999. Certain portions of the Zone and increasing
responsibility over the Canal were turned over in the intervening
years. With US help, dictator Manuel NORIEGA was deposed in
1989. The entire Panama Canal, the area supporting the Canal,
and remaining US military bases were turned over to Panama
by or on 31 December 1999.
Economy
- overview:
Panama's dollarised economy rests primarily on a well-developed
services sector that accounts for three-fourths of GDP. Services
include operating the Panama Canal, banking, the Colon Free
Zone, insurance, container ports, flagship registry, and tourism.
A slump in Colon Free Zone and agricultural exports, the global
slowdown, and the withdrawal of US military forces held back
economic growth in 2000-03. The government has been backing
public works programs, tax reforms, new regional trade agreements,
and development of tourism in order to stimulate growth. Unemployment
remains at an unacceptably high level.
For more
information please visit:
CIA
World Factbook
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Articles:
Panama: Much More Than Palm Trees Swaying in the Tropical Breeze
by Sydney Tremayne
Panama. Warm, tropical, palm trees silhouetted against the golden
sky of a setting sun. Yes, it is all those romantic things.
But it is so much more.
Its
capital is the most modern city south of the U.S. If this is
the third world, I missed the first somewhere in my travels.
Panama City is a world-leading financial center with some 120
banks, many with competing glass and steel monuments to commerce.
Panama
is shopping, U.S. style. Many of the stores found on Main Street,
U.S.A., are here too. After all, the Panama Canal was run by
Americans for almost 100 years, and the American military had
a major presence here until 1999.
Panama
once had a reputation as part of the pipeline for Colombian
drugs. It suffered under the savage dictatorship of Manuel Noriega,
until he was captured and imprisoned by American troops in December,
1989. The country has had a peaceful democracy ever since. Like
Costa Rica, it has no military. Money is spent on education
instead, and its people have a high level of literacy. And if
you need medical attention here, your doctor is likely to have
been trained in the U.S. or Europe.
Panama
is silver sand on the Caribbean side and black volcanic sand
on the Pacific side. It has the second-largest volcanic crater
in the world inside which nestles a popular tourist and retirement
town. (The largest is the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania.) It
is dessert and mountaintop. It can be humid all year, or like
spring for all 12 months, depending on where you are in this
small country.
Panama
is world-class hotels and resorts, the best roads in Central
America by far (many were built by Americans). And Brinks gives
the country a top rating for personal safety.
Panama
is tales of pirates, of Spanish treasure and the forts that
tried to protect it; it is jungle and monkeys and parrots. It
has more birds than all of North America put together, some
960 different species. There is even a jungle preserve right
inside the city limits. And Darien National Park on the Colombian
border is a jungle of monstrous size and one of the world’s
richest wildlife habitats.
Panama,
that thin strip of land joining the northern and southern halves
of the Americas (yet running east to west) provides a 50-mile
wide divide between the worlds two largest oceans. And its narrowness
has provided the ingredients for much of its history. The Spanish
used it as a land bridge to transship Inca treasure en route
to Spain. This attracted pirates whose exploits here made them
household names. The rest, as they say, is history.
The
French tried to build a canal, and went broke. The Americans,
who proved the value of the isthmus during the Gold Rush, succeeded
where the French had failed. And today, the Panama Canal, now
run by Panamanians, produces much of the country’s wealth.
More shipping is registered in Panama than in anywhere else
on earth.
Panama
is a land of diversity. Its people are friendly. If your car
breaks down, runs out of gas, or gets a flat, within a few minutes
someone will stop to help. Try that in Manhattan! The language
is Spanish, but in the major hotels and many places in the capital,
the people who serve you speak English. And if they don’t,
there’s sure to be a helpful English-speaking person within
earshot who will offer assistance. Currency: the U.S. dollar
since 1904. What could be easier?
About the Author
Sydney Tremayne publishes http://www.yourpanama.com,
a leading website for tourists and for potential ex-pat retirees
in Panama. His team of experts gives regular Q&A teleseminars
that can save costly mistakes.
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