MEDELLIN, Colombia, March 29 (Reuters) - Panama's economy will grow at least 3 percent this year and in the worst case scenario, the country could register a fiscal deficit of 1 percent of its gross domestic product in 2009, Economy Minister Hector Alexander said on Sunday.
Panama's economy depends heavily on international trade, which has been slowed by the global economic crisis. Around 5 percent of global trade passes through the Panama Canal.
"Exports have slowed down and the same for construction, which had been very dynamic," Alexander told reporters at the Inter-American Development Bank meeting in Medellin.
The World Bank had said it sees Panama's economy expanding 4.5 percent in 2009, down from the 9.5 percent growth outlook that the Panamanian government had expected for this year

Contrary to the majority of its neighbors of Central America, Panama, thanks to its banking and commercial international, is a country economically strong.

It has an impressive banking environment which owes its prosperity with its strict laws in terms of bank secrecy and commercial. Panama Canal is also an important source of revenue (ships which cross it are subjected to a toll) and tourism plays a determining role in the nation's economy. The free zone of Colón is the second zone of free trade in the world after Hong Kong. Approximately 30% of the commercial exchanges pass by this zone located close to Panama Canal.

The agricultural activities, which include fishing, the breeding and the forestry development, employ nearly 30% of the population. The principal cultures of Panama are the banana, rice, the corn, the beans, the cane with sugar and the banana plantain. One raises cattle there, pigs and poultries and one fishes there lobster, fish and shrimps.
The United States is the first business partner of Panama, with 34% from its imports and 65% of its exports. Costa Rica and Germany are also of important business partners of the country. Principal exports of Panama are the bananas (25%), the shrimps (19%), clothing, sugar and the coffee (5% each one).

Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown and America’s President Barack Obama have spent thousands of billions bailing out assorted floundering banks and major firms – while Panama is spending just $5.25Bn to ensure it remains a maritime world player.

The Panama Canal Expansion Project will give a new definition to the word ‘Panamax’ – vessels up to 49m wide, 366m long and with a 15m draught. And they’ll include 12,600 TEU box ships and 170,000dwt cargo vessels.

As I write, having just returned from the joint CEDA-WEDA-ACP congress in Panama City, the project was on time and under budget – although the toughest challenges still lie ahead. Confidence in the Panama Canal Authority’s (ACP) ability to make it all work is evidenced not only by Moody’s A2 investment rating for the project (higher than the country’s overall A3 rating!), but in the $2.3Bn advanced by a consortium of global multilateral finance agencies on what can only be called terms favorable to the ACP. And they pledged the cash last December at the height of credit crunch fears.
While I was there, the all-important bids for the new sets of locks were announced with three multinational joint ventures spending upwards of $20M each on the tenders alone. Best guess is that we’ll probably have to wait until July to find out who’s won. At the same time, the Panamanian government is seriously upgrading infrastructure around the country, not least by building new highways to support the ‘dry’ transshipment of cargoes.
The ACP also announced specifications for the Atlantic entrance dredging contract that now has every major dredging contractor burning candles late into the night to ensure they get it right. A further contract to deepen the Atlantic outer harbor area is likely to follow soon.
Alongside dry excavation of new sections of the canal, ‘proper’ dredging is well under way. Dredging International won the Pacific entrance deepening contract, worth $177.5M, and Jan De Nul is chartering the backhoe Il Principe for around $10M a year to help ACP’s CSD Mindi and dipper Rialto M. Christensen to dredge both Gatún Lake and the Culebra Cut.
It’s not just the money though.
“When our CSD Vlandeeren XIX sailed under the Bridge of the Americas and into the Panama Canal – well, it was a very special feeling,” DI’s Central American area manager, Hugo De Vlieger, told me.
I can understand that: it’s not often that you get a chance to make history.

Panama's Chinese community has made tremendous contributions to the development of the country for more than 150 years, local Chinese community leader said on Monday, the Chinese Ethnic Group Day.

"In recognition of these contributions, the Panamanian government in 2004 set every year's March 30 as the Chinese Ethnic Group Day," Sergio Lay, vice president of the Chinese Association of Panama, told Xinhua.
Chinese in Panama are outstanding in politics, culture, and sports, among many other fields, Lay said.
Former Panama's comptroller and immigration director Jose Chen Barria; painter Manuel Chong Net; poet and literary critic Cesar Young; singer Brenda Lao are outstanding representatives of Chinese Panamanians. "We hope young Chinese Panamanians will carry on the fine traditions of hard working, and honesty that we have taught them," Lay said.
Panama's Chinese community, with a population of roughly 200,000, is the largest in Central America.
ss According to historical records, the first group of Chinese laborers arrived in the country on March 30, 1854 by way of Canada and Jamaica to work on the Panama Railroad, which links the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean across Panama.