(International Living) Panama Pacifico is located just over Panama City’s Bridge of the Americas
There isn’t a single business person in Panama who hasn’t heard of Panama Pacifico. One of the world’s largest mixed-development projects, it is poised to become a city within a city. Close to the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, just over Panama City’s Bridge of the Americas, this area used to be an Air Force base called Howard.
But today, a special arrangement offers business and tax benefits to certain types of businesses in this area.
For example, set up shop here and you could pay no taxes for the transfer of goods and services to ships, passengers, or any of Panama’s mega-ports. The Panama Pacifico “Special Economic Area,” as it’s called, has lured plenty of big business, from giants like 3M to Mailboxes, Etc. (the UPS Store).
But little businesses have yet to take hold in the former Howard…and so much is needed.
There is a daycare, a single gas station, and little else. There are already hundreds of people living here and some 2,500 employees work here every day. The poor souls have nowhere to go for a latte or even a nice business luncheon…yet.
Many of the people who live and work here are foreign, and new transplants continue to arrive. Start a business here now, and you’d be the first in with a major head-start. You could start with something like offering city shopping tours.
Small, Sustainable and Eco-Friendly
Elsewhere in Panama, “Pedasi by the Sea” is best described as a sleepy little fishing town. It’s clean and quiet, with extremely friendly locals and a small population of about less than 4,000. Here everyone knows everyone, but outsiders are welcome and made to feel at home. This is a place where the days go by slowly (and the people are never exactly in a hurry, either).
Pedasi has all the benefits of a rural setting close to the growing city of Chitre.
Due to the excellent infrastructure and beaches, foreign visitors are discovering how much Pedasi has to offer. But there are still an unbelievable number of niches to fill. Flights to Pedasi were reinstated just recently. With the global economy recovering, now may be the perfect time to get here and beat the crowds.
Little dive shops and surf shops have popped up in and around Pedasi. Several outfits offer deep-sea fishing tours, too.
There are not yet any tourism businesses there catering to the less experienced or less adventurous traveler. Small, sustainable and eco-friendly is the name of the game here.
Come visit and you’ll see. You could cater to expat kids…show documentaries and organize book and movie swaps…even a smoothie stand would be welcome. The tropical blue sky’s the limit here.
Editor’s note: Many International Living readers who come to “retire” in Panama have instead started a business: guesthouses, property developments, resorts, eco-tourism projects, forestation projects, charter dive operations—even boat repair outfits.
If Panama figures anywhere in your plans or dreams for living, retiring, investing, or starting a business…for having fun or making money…you need to join us in April for the Live and Invest in Panama Seminar 2011. Full details here.