We would stand at the window—Lief, young Jackson, and I—watching the scene 14 floors down until it was time for Jackson to go to bed.
Then, first thing next morning, I’d open the blinds and we’d look again to see what’d changed overnight.
It was like reality TV—“Panama City Makeover.”
The year was 2008. Crews were working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to meet the deadline for the inauguration of Phase I of the Cinta Costera. Panama’s capital was remodeling itself in real time.
Last week, Lief and I drove from Panama City to Los Islotes on our Veraguas coast. It’d been three months since we’d last made the trip. The drive takes us through the heart of the country—from the capital to the City Beaches then through Penonome to Santiago and, finally, down the western coast of the Azuero Peninsula.
Boy, what a difference three months had made. Changes all along the way reminded me of those days we watched the Cinta Costera emerge along the Bay of Panama from our living room…
And reinforced a core reason we initially recommended Panama in 1996 and why we remain now, 30 years later, all-in.
This little country gets things done.
“What do you see?” Lief asked as we started across the Bridge of the Americas.
I get nervous when Lief cranes his head sideways while driving us across the Panama Canal. He wants to see what’s new. I want to avoid him driving us into the drink. So I narrate.
“Wow,” I said before I could stop myself.
Lief turned to look out my window. “What is it? What do you see?” he wanted to know.
“I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you!” I said. “Watch the road.”
Bottom line, there was a whole lot more concrete jutting out of the water than there had been last time we’d passed by just a few months earlier. The new bridge is taking shape.
When completed in 2028, it will be the third bridge across the Panama Canal outside Panama City… and it will look like this…
In fact, though, this will be the fourth bridge across the Canal. The Puente Atlantico in Colón crosses the Canal’s Atlantic entrance to connect that city with the Caribbean coast…
The Fourth Bridge now under construction is but one of many mega-infrastructure projects currently under way in this country.
Panama met its target back in 2009. Phase I of the Cinta Costera opened as planned. The 26-hectare land reclamation project was the first big step toward remaking Panama City’s gritty Third World city center into the beautiful and lush waterfront park it is today…
And the Cinta Costera is just one of the big-deal reinventions Panama has carried out over the past 15 years from the expansion of the Panama Canal to accommodate bigger ships to a second terminal for Tocumen International Airport to solidify this country as the hub of the Americas and a metro system to alleviate congestion in Panama City.
New hospitals, new shopping malls, indeed a whole new sub-city at Costa del Este… Panama has made sure and steady progress toward its stated goal of achieving developed world status.
That work continues.
We’ll take a close look at the projects accomplished, under way, and part of the country’s long-term strategic master plan during this week’s Live And Invest In Panama Conference.
Here’s a sneak peek…
Panama is no longer an emerging opportunity. This country is recognized on the world stage as a global leader and, more important than ever in the context of today’s world, safe haven for both you and your money.
Again, we’ll dig into it all during this week’s event kicking off tomorrow morning at the Hotel Las Américas. The hundreds in attendance will have a front-row view of the extraordinary transformation Panama’s capital city has made and continues to undergo.
Until next time,
Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter
