A Singapore for Central America?
Latin America’s fastest-growing country has set its sights high. First it needs a government as impressive as its economy
ON A humid stretch of Pacific coast in one of the poorest parts of the Americas, somebody seems to have misplaced a chunk of Manhattan. The 50-storey skyscrapers of Panama City jut out of the jungle like nowhere else in low-rise Central America. Panama's smart banks, open economy and long queues of boats at its ports have caused many to compare it to Singapore, another steamy success story. Panama's president, Ricardo Martinelli, made his country's first state visit there in 2010 and later said, “We copy a lot from Singapore and we need to copy more.”
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline "A Singapore for Central America?"
From the July 16th 2011 edition
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