Panama and the United States shared a strong bond throughout their respective histories. The link between these countries lasted for over 100 years and helped Panama become the second largest economy in Central America. While these two nations are different in language, climate and poverty, some of their business structure, government and business communications shares similarities with the United States.
A brief, general background on this nation, Panama has a population of 2.4 million people and is one of the smallest countries in Central America. The official language is Spanish. Because of the extensive U.S. influence, most Panamanians are bilingual in Spanish and English.
The ethnic background of most …show more content…
For example, 30 to 40 percent are white-collar workers who are highly skilled and educated, with very little agricultural or industrial experience. Panamanians and other Hispanics represent a consumer market of between $140 billion and $190 billion in the world’s economy, and that market will be responsible for much of the consumer market growth here in the United States in the future. In addition, business profits were estimated at $29.6 billion in 1990, up 48 percent from 1987 (Dean, 1996).
However, Panamanians and other Hispanics suffer from high poverty levels compared with non-Hispanics. For example, income, employment status, education and other factors, the average net worth of a white household is about eight times that of a Hispanic household ($43,279 as opposed to $5,524) (Dean, 1996). In the private sector, Panamanian workers are active members in the nation's work force. Panamanians have had better luck of finding improved jobs during the past decade, but they are more likely to be employed in lower-skilled, lower-paid …show more content…
While that may be true, Panama is still a proud, independent, traditional Latin American nation with a developing capital city and its chief moneymaker set to become even bigger. Panama has endured rough times in its history throughout the last 100 years but pulled through to become the second largest economy in Central America. Of course the Panama Canal attributes to most of the success, but the blue-collar citizens working in construction and agriculture drive the success as well. Education remains important for the present and future. Panama’s educational system is fine, but I feel young people miss valuable lessons to learn because public education stays funded only through middle school. Panama’s population lives below the poverty line, like most other Central American countries. Parents cannot afford to send their children to high school and college, so those options are only for the small upper class of Panama. Many families work in farming and agriculture and make little money. Public education should not stop at grade 9. If public education expanded into those years, there is a possibility the literacy rate increases. Nevertheless, credit the United States’ influence creating their school