Globalization and Panama

Since the turnover of the canal to Panama in 1999 Panama has seen a large influx of global capital and money into the region, however while this influx of resources has enriched part of the country it has allowed Panama to continue its development without developing the required base and experience to maintain and operate the infrastructure which it possesses without influxes of outside resources. This can be seen through a number of ways as exemplified by divisions in wealth between classes and regions, lack of technical and concrete knowledge and education requiring the importation of worker and technician from outside the nation in order to accomplish jobs that are needed to be done inside the country, and the lack of social and economic infrastructure that is required to enable the development of a solution to the problems stated above. Over all these three points will demonstrate that influx of capital from the outside as a result of return of the Panama canal and the connection to globalization while in the short term being beneficial the types of investment that they are encouraging will in the long term leave Panama beholden to outside interests and prevent it from allowing all of its people to experience the fruits of its success.

First I will examine the divisions of wealth in the country. To begin with Panama has been stated by the world bank to be among the most unequal countries in the world as estimated by the world bank and has been estimated to have thirty-seven percent of the population in poverty with about nineteen percent of the total population living in extreme poverty. This division also is much more highly concentrated in the country side where in proveniences such as Panama and Colon have up to sixty-f...

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...nians to look for education elsewhere in other countries. Thirdly while Panama is developing its infrastructure due to the nature of its education systems, its division of classes and its levels of corruption it is doing so in such a way that it will not be creating a system that will be sustainable for a number of reasons including ecological over taxation of systems, lack of trained personal to maintain its systems leading to a reliance on foreign personal in order to accomplish this objective and the lack of diversification in its infrastructure that will leave the economy vulnerable to instability from possible competition or changes in world markets and focusses. In conclusion this current direction of development while profitable in the short term will lead to loss of opportunities for the Panamanian population and prevent the enrichment of specific regions.