Panamainfo’s Blog

Panama is such a great place that a lot of people would love to live and do business here.

To prevent too many foreigners from living here and to promote investment, the Panama government does not make it easy to live here.

1. Tourist visa: The tourist visa you get when you come into Panama gives you 90 days in the country. This visa is for Americans, Canadians and citizens of the European Community and some other counties.  After 90 days, you must leave Panama and go to another country for three days and then you can come back and get another 90 days. There is no cost to this visa.

2 Retiree Visa or “Pensionado Visa” This is called a retiree visa but you don’t actually have to be retired to get it-you just have to be over 18. All you need to do is to prove you have a lifetime pension of at least $1000 per month.  If you buy 100,000 worth of property in Panama, then the minimum is just $750.

The pensionado visa comes with many benefits and discounts including 25% discount on all flights both international and domestic and major discounts at restaurants, hotels, movie theaters, certain medical services, prescription drugs and utility bills.

3. Economic Solvency Visa: To qualify for this visa you need to deposit $300.000 in a bank account in a three year time deposit or purchase real estate for the same amount.
4. Panama Bank CD Pension Visa: For this visa, you just need to create CD in  one of the national banks that earns a monthly minimum income of $850.00
5. Reforestation Visa I: The least inexpensive visa, you need to invest $60.000 in a government certified reforestation project.
6. Reforestation Visa II: You invest $80,000 in a government certified reforestation project and after a few years you have the right to permanent residence and citizenship.
7. Business Investor Visa: Requires investing at least $160,000 in a Panamanian business that employs at least 5 Panamanians. Permanent residency is included.
8. Agricultural Investor: Just make a $60,000 investment in agriculture or aquaculture but you only get a six year visa
9. Tax Free Processing Zone Visa: You need to rent land, an office or building in one of the Free Trade Zones.

Others basics  you’ll need for a visa are a police certificate from the town you most recently lived in  your country of origin, a health exam and an AIDS test.

You must hire a lawyer for your visa and at the present time it takes a very long time to go through. It is very important you hire a lawyer from a well known firm or that comes with excellent referrals from people you know well.  See our Law Firm in our Business and Services section page for a good lawyer.

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Sam Taliaferro, the owner Valle Escondido, Panama’s original resort community posted an important interview with an American retiree couple who were invited to converse  with  Panama’s new President Ricardo Martinelli when they ran into his group at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Panama City.  President Martinelli told this couple ” he wants to make it very easy for Americans to move here and to invest. He said he was planning on having meetings with ex-pats to see what their concerns are. He told us it was going to be easier to get residency, drivers license and he was going to make it safer.”

See the whole interview here:

http://primapanama.blogs.com/_panama_residential_devel/2009/08/president-martinelli-personally-welcomes-foreigners-to-panama.html

We are also are hearing  that Pres. Martinelli is moving quickly on a number of fronts so that foreigners who invest and live in Panama will have less bureaucratic hassles with government in immigration and setting up businesses etc.  He will also improve security which is already excellent  compared to other countries in the region.  The police have been instructed to help foreigners in any way they can and not hassle them as has happened in the past.

In fact, in his inaugural address President Martinelli declared his goal to make “Panama the best place in the world to do business”. This man does not think small.  And he is proving as good as his word on his campaign promises.

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Just a week before the May 3rd.  elections, presidential candidate Ricardo Martinelli predicted he would win the Panama presidency by a “tsunami “. No one believed him. The polls showed him ahead but after all, the last time he ran for president in 2004 he got only 5% of the vote. But that is exactly what happened- he won by landslide- 60% in a 3 way race- the highest margin of any race in Panama’s recent history

Martinelli won because he convinced the Panamanian people he would  do all the right things for both the populace and the business community- that  he was the person  who could  solve the countries mounting problems including rampant corruption, increasing crime, a public school system that is the most expensive and one of the worst in Latin America and a Panama City transportation chaos that means city dwellers spend 10 years of their life on a bus or car getting to work.

Mr. Martinelli ran a campaign  with a slogan about “Change ” just like President Obama.  In fact according to an interview in The Panama Post, his models are Barack Obama “because he showed change is possible, Winston Churchhill “for his tenacity”, Otto Von Bismark for unifying Germany and next door neighbor Alvaro Uribe, the very successful of President of Columbia.

Change is what Panama needs as it stands at a crossroads- a country with one of the most promising futures in Latin America, but only if Mr. Martinelli can solve its current very pressing and serious problems.

Mr.  Martinelli, age 57  is one of Panama’s most successful businessman having built the country’s largest supermarket chain.  He did his undergraduate studies at the University of Arkansas and an MBA at the prestigious Costa Rica INCAE school of business afilliated with Harvard University. He is a brillant, no-nonsense, take charge type of guy.  His election is hailed  as a turn the right after a string of Latin American governments have turned to the left in recent years.  He is pro-American, will work hard to get the Free Trade Agreement with the US signed this year and he is going to bring modern management and business know-how to solving Panama’s problems.

Panama watchers are heartened by his actions since his  elections including a choice of ministers- some of whom are brilliant like economist and banker Alberto Vallerino as the head of the all important Ministry of the Economy and some of whole are   “out of the box” appointments like Lucy Molinar as Minister of Education- a popular and formidable TV journalist of enormous integrity.

Mr. Martinelli’s election made news in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Time. Indeed, many investors looking for a good place to invest money these, are taking second look  at Panama now because of his election.  Among other things, he plans to  will start building right away a metro to solve the devilish Panama City transportation problems, 5 new airports for the burgeoning tourism industry and a highway network including  coastal route to connect Panama’s attractive Caribbean.

Mr.  Martinelli takes office July 1st. From there on, there’s going to be plenty of interesting news out of Panama.

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International organizations, the Panama government and local and international consulting firms are predicting Panama’s economy will grow between 1.2% and 5% in 2009. This is well below the 9.2% it grew in 2008, but better than most other countries where economies are contracting not growing.

The predictions:

A local website, Panama Economy Insight is predicting growth of only 1.2% for 2009 but a growth of 9% in 2110 and 2111.

Standard and Poor is the most pessimistic for 2009 with a prediction of 3.5%

Local consulting firms Indesa and Deloitte say 4%.

CEPAL ( Latin American Economic Commission, and the analysts at Credit Suisse and Citibank all predict 4.5%- 5%.

According to an article in La Prensa March 25th, Panama’s Finance Minister Hector Alexander says ” Considerando all the is happening worldwide with the recessions in the major world economies and other countries in the region, this is very good and shows Panama’s (economic) strength.

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Folks,

Below is a list of confirmed 8 megaprojects and another huge one in the works for 2008-2010.

Panama is a tiny country- if only half of these projects actually get built it will do very well, but most of these projects are going to happen

Megaprojects in Panama Confirmed for 2008-2010:

1.Canal widening: 2.8 billion

2. Petaquilla mine: 3.5 billion

3. Government infrastructure projects : 3 billion

4. Electrical plants: 945 million

5. Rodman Port: 100 million

6. Manzanillo Port Expansion and other ports: 611 million

7. Puerto Armulles oil pipeline: 100 million

8. London Regional project in Howard: 750 million ( a whole city) They broke ground last week.

9. Another project not yet nailed down: Puerto Armuelles Refinery: 8 billion ( Investors; Occidental Petroleum and the country of Qatar)

Negotiations are continuing for this biggie but they are coming along well .

10. Tourism is growing at 10% a year - a million a year and they spend 10 times more than Costa Rican tourists ( mostly because most tourists are businessmen). Panama’s tourism authority just released an excellent tourism master plan. Panama has more attractions than Costa Rica and its tourism industry is in its beginning stages.

After looking at this list, you know why our Panama City hotels have been so full.

Nancy

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