The Isthmus of Panama has an area of 75.517 km2, with over 1000 miles of coastline and 1,000 islands in the Pacific and 800 miles of coastline and 600 islands in the Caribbean.

 

The Republic of Panama has one of the democratic order, and found copies in Latin America.

It consists of 3 branches which are:

• Executive Branch: the command is the President assisted by 2 vice-presidents and 13 ministers of state.
• Judiciary: Comprising the Judges of the Supreme Court.
• Legislative: Composed by the President of the Assembly and the 72 deputies representing the Legislature, they are elected by popular vote every five years.

The cost of living is low, with special incentives that make Panama one of the best places for retirement reported by several international organizations. He is considered the 2nd safest country in Latin America.

POPULATION AND AREA:

POPULATION: Is 3.3 million inhabitants (2000 census) and 40% are in Panama City.

AREA: The Isthmus of Panama has an area of 75.517 square kilometers, with more than 1000 miles of coastline and 1,000 islands in the Pacific and 800 miles of coastline and 600 islands in the Caribbean.

LIMITS:

• East: borders with Colombia.
• West: with Costa Rica.
• North: forms a natural bridge in the Isthmus of 80 kilometers wide at its narrowest part by joining the Atlantic Ocean.
• South: the Pacific Ocean.

PHONES: There are 4 choices of fixed telephony in Panama, and cell 3.

SHOPPING CENTERSE (MALL): It has 5 major shopping centers and tourist market for local small and 3.

BEACHES: Its beaches are a paradise in the Pacific and the Atlantic. Panama is the only place in the world where one can wash in the morning in the Pacific and Atlantic in the afternoon on the same day.

RAILWAY: There are also a private railway carriage of persons, transport containers.

FREE ZONE: Known as the Colon Free Zone, and includes:

• The biggest center for collecting and redistributing the load Americas.
• Open for business Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m.
• Modern exhibition halls, warehouses and commercial premises.
• Security in and around the area.
• Provide services 25 domestic and international banks.
• Large amount of available labor, low-cost specialist.
• Network of high-tech communications.
• Air Terminal in the area of France Field transportede the merchants passengers between the terminal cities of Panama and Colon.
• Multinational companies offer cargo service in less than 24 hours.
• Generation of 15,000 direct jobs and 6,000 indirect jobs.
• Proximity to ports, rail terminals, airports, transportation terminals and 5-star hotels.
• Two major corridors linking the city in just minutes (corridor north and south corridor).
• We have a transport terminal in Albrook.
• There are two bridges that connect into the republic are: Las Americas and El Centenario.
• The cuisine is rich with Italian restaurants entrust experts, Jewish, Hindu, Arabic, Greek, china, etc..
• There are two major ports: the Cristobal and Balboa.
• 100 per cent is tropical with temperatures ranging among the 26 and 30 ¬∞ Celsius throughout the year. There are two seasons, dry with a sunshine from December to April and a rainy season from May to November. You can also enjoy temperatures of 12 and 15 ¬∞ Celsius in the highlands of Chiriqui Province, near the border with Costa Rica. Also in Valle de Anton and Cerro Azul in an hour and a half and 40 minutes from downtown Panama City, respectively.

Religion: Panama is predominantly Catholic, but there is religious freedom and other religions and religious beliefs. Which are freely practiced in the country.

Days Homelands:

• November 3 Celebrating the Separation of Panama from Colombia in 1903.
• November 4 Flag Day.
• November 5 Day Colon Province, for his contribution to the final emancipation of Panama from Colombia in 1903.
• November 10 Celebration of the First Cry of Independence in the Villa de Los Santos, then the province of Veraguas, in 1821.
• November 28 Celebration of the Independence of Panama from Spain in 1821.

THE PANAMA CANAL

The Panama Canal is a destination that offers adventure, surprises, fun, excitement and lots of history. Tourists who visit it, as well as those of the transit from one ocean to another, have the opportunity to experience the natural and historical riches of Panama.

First of October 1979 to December 31, 1999, the Panama Canal operates under mandates established in the treaty signed in 1977 between the Republic of Panama and United States. Under this treaty, the Canal functioned as an agency of the Government of the United States, operated by the defunct Canal Commission and supervised by a binational board of directors composed of five Americans and four Panamanians. Since its transfer, the Panama Canal is managed by the Panama Canal Authority, an autonomous entity of the Government of Panama, headed by an administrator and a deputy, under the supervision of a board composed of 11 members. The appointment of the first board of the Canal Authority was staggered periods to ensure their independence from the government of the day.

The canal company is constantly developing and updating plans and long-term programs for a variety of maintenance projects and improvements. These include deepening, widening and straightening of certain parts of the channel, the replacement of worn or obsolete equipment with new and better, the programming routine for the refurbishment and equipment of the lock canal, besides maintaining a program of dredging continuous across the waterway.

At present, the institution forward an aggressive program of modernization and improvement of more than one billion dollars to ensure the safe and efficient operation of the canal and increase capacity.

All these programs aim to ensure that the Panama Canal remains competitive and continues to be an economically viable route for the shipping world for many decades.

TOURISM

This small strip of land that nature created as a link between two continents separated, and that man, to unite two oceans through the Panama Canal, offers a range of tourist attractions that will make your trip an unforgettable experience.

Panama offers beaches on two islands and seas to provide a framework for tropical forests that are distributed in many national parks, where visitors experience the remarkable, enjoying the beauty of 900 bird species and 300 thousand species of orchids. All this, coupled with the proximity of luxurious and comfortable hotels, access roads in good condition and short flights of domestic airlines.

Our land is full of opportunities to invest and negotiate and we offer a modern city with a recognized banking system and thousands of stores with shopping malls, where the visitor is surprised by the variety of items from all over the world. The Colon Free Zone and our ports in both entries Interoceanic Canal, to Panama are of great importance in world trade.

New Projects.

-Cinta Costera: The Cinta Costera project is the infrastructure of the National Government to ensure an effective solution to the congestion of the Avenida Balboa. Made available to the Panamanians and visitors, extensive green spaces and public funding, alongside sport and culture of the Bay of Panama City.

The Cinta Costera project the world the dynamism and modernity of Panama, through the new image of the Avenida Balboa, which will be unreferente architecture and landscape.

For over 50 years, the Avenida Balboa was a social and family entertainment seen as one of the most symbolic places of the city. That reality has changed. At present, traffic has become a place of high congestion, also very unfriendly to pedestrians.

-Canal Expansion: Expanding the capacity of the Panama Canal is one of the great works of engineering of the XXI century, as a 40% increase in the capacity of transit of goods from the current sea lanes linking the Atlantic with the Pacific. New locks will be constructed to be connected to the system of channels. These dimensions will cross in opposite directions navigation of ships larger than the allowable time. The works of the project will not affect the operation of the Canal.

-Refinery: Panama has become attractive for the installation of oil refineries. Occidental Petroleum (Oxy), Pemex.

Now, the U.S. oil company DuTemp associated with the European Control FUD and Colombian Ecosel, have announced the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MICI) that already have funding to pursue the installation of an oil refinery at Columbus, with an investment of 6 million 500 thousand dollars.

It is a refinery of arc plasma reactor, with capacity to process 250 thousand barrels of oil per day on 125 octane premium fuel. The consortium stresses that it is a "clean technology" that will refine oil to meet market United States, Europe, Central America and Panama.

-Megaports: - Panama, which never lived as a boom in the port industry, will give a strategic concession area in the Pacific coast for the development of a 'Megaports', which will take an initial investment of about $ 600 million.

-Departure of cruise from Panama: Royal Caribbean has announced that from December 2008 until April 2009 will offer 17 voyages departing from Panama on board the ship "Enchantment of the Seas." The cruise will depart from the city of Colon on the Atlantic crossing in a Panamanian seven days, going to the cities of Cartagena and Santa Marta in Colombia, Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles.

This is just the first step to ensuring that Panama will become a center for cruise shipping. In 2000 the Port Columbus is investing nearly $ 10 million to build a new pier, is estimated to be completed by October, just in time to receive the "Enchantment of the Seas."