(Prensa.com) SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic. (EFE). The president of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, said on Thursday that his country’s economy is “booming” at the time praised the Congress sent the United States free trade agreement (FTA) between both nations.
To give a lecture at the Fifth Forum of the Americas Competititvidad (V-FCA), held this Wednesday in the Dominican Republic, the ruling said that when he took office in July 2009 found “Panama was growing, but was stalled. ”
However, he explained, after a series of reforms in various areas undertaken by his administration, the economy began to take off and now, he said, “is growing at 10%” and it is expected that foreign investment reaches 3 billion dollars this year.
“We started to put its house in order,” said Martinelli.
The president said that during his tenure in Panama poverty has fallen from 39% to 28% and the unemployment rate is 5.6%.
The good state of Panama’s economy has done, he said, that many multinational companies have their headquarters in Panama and Latin America.
Panama, Martinelli said, the country is “open, no holds barred, modern and secure” that “seeks to insert in the first world.”
“We are focused on making a competitive country that meets the needs of investors,” he said.