Panama

Climate change laws around the world

There has been a 20-fold increase in the number of global climate change laws since 1997, according to the most comprehensive database of relevant policy and legislation.

The database, produced by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the Sabin Center on Climate Change Law, includes more than 1,200 relevant policies across 164 countries, which account for 95% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Panama Year in Review 2016

Two major events marked Panama’s year on the international stage in 2016, while domestically the economy continued its strong increase as activity in a range of sectors gained momentum that is expected to carry into 2017.
Making waves

The end of June saw the opening of the $5.4bn expansion of the Panama Canal. The widened and deepened canal presently accommodates vessels of much broader beam and shortens transit times, allowing for a better flow of traffic.

The project has given rise to a new class of container ship, known as New Panamax, that have a capacity for 14,000 containers, almost three times the 5000 units carried by the major ships to transit the waterway prior to its expansion.

Although the capacity of the canal has been increased, the initial nine months of 2016 saw a 6.6% year-on-time(y-o-y) decrease in the number of transits, according to a statement by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos, INEC) issued in late November.

Latin America Economy Renewed confidence in Latin America’s brightest economy

The PPK cabinet has been working diligently to modernize the country and replace business confidence, while unlocking investments and infrastructure megaprojects in a bid to boost the country’s economy