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Home Countries Panama

Is Panama A Third World Country? Not Really, Here’s Why

Nothing Third World About This Place

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Feb 16, 2022
in Panama
0
A panoramic image of Panama City, Panama

Adobe Stock/Dr. Jürgen Tenckhoff

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“Kathleen, I’ve been thinking about making a move overseas, specifically to Panama, for years… but my wife… not so much…

“She grew up in a Peace Corps family. “I’ve lived in the Third World,’ she says… “I don’t want to do it again.’

“But I keep trying to tell her that Panama isn’t the Third World…

“Would you agree?”

So asked an attendee at this week’s Live And Invest In Panama Conference, which kicked off bright and early this sun-drenched morning here on the isthmus.

You’re darn tootin’ I’d agree, I told him.

Why We Don’t Consider Panama A Third World Country

-The Lifestyles Panama Offer

This little squiggle of a country packs tremendous lifestyle diversity within its borders… from cosmopolitan boom town Panama City to Boquete in the highlands, home to one of the biggest communities of expat retirees in the world…

From the City Beaches area within weekend-commuting distance of Panama City to the western Azuero coast with its dramatic cliffs and crashing surf…

From the islands of Bocas del Toro in the Caribbean to small towns in the interior like Chitre and Santa Fe…

Cosmopolitan and country… coastal and mountainside… island luxury and village basic… Panama offers it all.

And, no question, much of it is anything but Third World.

No city in the region compares with Panama City, as the speakers participating in our opening panel discussion this morning confirmed.

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Panama’s Revenue And Infrastructure

The Panama Canal generates US$2.7 billion annually… and the Cobre mine another US$500 million. That’s a lot of cash flowing through the economy of a country with a population of just over 4 million people.

Panamanians prioritize infrastructure. When other countries in the region say they’re going to pave a road or build a bridge, you shouldn’t hold your breath for the finished product. When Panama promises a new highway or an expanded airport terminal… you can bet on it.

Not only Panama City benefits. Recently, Lief and I visited Chitre on the Azuero Peninsula, which we hadn’t seen in more than a decade. We remembered Chitre as a small traditional town, charming but not impressive.

When we returned earlier this month, we were gobsmacked by how this town has grown up. Freshly paved highways and roads, wide sidewalks, one of the best hospitals in the country, and U.S.-style grocery stores and shopping make life in Chitre about as convenient as life gets.

“Nothing Third World about it,” agreed Dusty Tubbs, one of our opening session panelists.

“Ten years ago,” I told the crowd assembled in the room with us here in Panama City this morning, “Dusty was just like you. He sat where you’re sitting now, at one of our Panama conferences.

 

“Dusty and his wife Carolyn were looking for an escape hatch. They’d realized that they wouldn’t be able to afford to stop working anytime soon if they continued living in Hawaii. They wanted to slow down… to embrace  retirement lifestyle… but the dream seemed unrealistic…

“Until they opened their minds and their eyes to possibilities beyond U.S. borders.

“Their search for options overseas led them to us… then to one of our Panama conferences… and then, finally, to a new life in Panama. Dusty and Carolyn have been happy residents of Chitre for nearly nine years now.”

No, Panama is not the Third World…

Though I’m happy to be able to report that, if you’re looking for an escape from the troubles and the stresses of the First World… you can still find that here, too.

Way down at the bottom of the western coast of the Azuero Peninsula, for example, where Lief and I are creating a community at Los Islotes?

It’s remote, yes…

But the road down the coast has just been rebuilt and repaved…

And a gas station, a restaurant, a bar, and a small grocery store have recently opened just a kilometer from our front gate.

The First World is approaching.

We hope it takes its time.

Sincerely,
Kathleen Peddicord signature
Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter

Tags: is panama a third world countryLife In Panamalive in PanamaPanamapanama third worldretire in panamathird worldthird world country
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Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

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