Panama was placed in third place in the 2019 list of countries “Open for Business”, which is prepared by US News and World Report in collaboration with the communication and marketing group BAV and the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania, United States.

Panama is only surpassed by Luxembourg and Switzerland, in the classification that is based on a survey of more than 20 thousand people asked about specific characteristics of the 80 countries evaluated, such as manufacturing costs, taxes and government transparency.

This is a project that is based on classification, news and analysis to capture how countries are perceived on a global scale.

The 80 countries are evaluated in 24 classifications taken from a survey measuring 75 dimensions that have the potential to boost trade, travel and investment and directly affect national economies.

According to the government of Laurentino Cortizo Cohen, this evaluation is published at a time when they have promoted a series of actions aimed at cleaning up public finances and complying with late payments to their creditors, in order to position Panama as a State that respects the commitments with its creditors in order to recover its image as an attractive and safe country for national and foreign investments.

For this, the government achieved the issuance of bonds for about 2 billion dollars at a very low rate, with which the country will be able to face the payment to providers and guilds of doctors and educators, as well as other sectors that have outstanding accounts.

Measures such as the creation of a framework law to govern the Public-Private Partnership, the payment of expired periods to educators and producers, the payment of preferential interests to banks, the amendment to the law of the Special Interest Compensation Fund (FECI) , which establishes that the retained sums will pass to the agricultural sector in a first stage from 75% to 100%.

The president of the Republic, Laurentino Cortizo Cohen, also held a meeting with the rating agencies Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s and Capital Markets, to convey a message of transparency and the strength of the Banking Center of Panama and the commitment to implement in a timely manner the Action Plan of the International Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to immediately leave the gray list.

Another of the measures has been the presentation before the National Assembly of the bill that regulates public procurement, with the aim of strengthening public procurement legislation to ensure greater efficiency, transparency and modernize the institutional framework.

This is the translation of a Spanish article originally posted by Midiario on Dec 27th 2019:

https://www.midiario.com/nacionales/panama-el-tercer-mejor-pais-del-mundo-para-hacer-negocios/