Where do the funds for mega works come from?

The economic situation that is leaving himdirected by Laurentino Cortiz and José Gabriel Carragainst the future Government, imposes a great challenge on those who will take over the head of the state from July 1, since the country is in debt, insolvent and with a high level of unemployment.

In the midst of this panorama, the presidential candidates have promised to promote mega works to reactivate Panama and create jobs, but the question that economists are asking is how they will be able to fulfill these promises.

In this sense, the former president of the National College of Economists, Olmedo Estrada, indicates that all campaigns promise such great deeds, because this is the only way to attract the electorate.

“We all know that this year is very difficult, we have no income from the mines, on top of that the Panama Canal said that we will have 700 million dollars less in income. We are saying that if we lose investments the degree will affect us.” affect economic stability, in short we have unresolved issues such as CSS, it explodes in our face at every moment, that is, there are so many issues that actually making promises about megaprojects I think deceives the population a little because actually the conditions are not to say that we will have a train Panama-David, it’s illusory to talk about that project.

The economist believes that “h“We have to talk about concrete things, water problems, garbage problems, problems that the population has in terms of health, medicines, these are crucial issues that we have at the moment and that must be solved effectively.”

Pose Estrada that whoever assumes “the first thing he will have to do is to see how he will solve the fiscal problem because he will have a big burden with the fiscal issue because this year is a very difficult, difficult year, economic growth estimated below 2%, which also projects income with a small with strength, such low growth does not stimulate the revenue that will be collected and all of this is shaping up to be a very big challenge for whoever will assume the Presidency of the Republic.

He emphasizes that at the first moment “he has to face a budget that will obviously create a deficit, which will send him in search of financing to cover the deficit and a savings plan, because the current government did not want to do that”. but it has to be done because the country has no way to deal with a budget that clearly exceeds revenue projections.”

He economist René Bracho is more optimistic and believes that it is necessary to plan and implement an intensive program of public investment in infrastructure, megaprojects such as the Panama-David high-speed train, the cable car urban mobility system that were proposed in some pre-election campaigns, that the reality of its implementation, the verification of the country’s energy infrastructure, projects that strengthen economy by carrying out these megaprojects and, in parallel, promoting a productive development policy and solving some strategic challenges that the country has in terms of social security and water, but I think that in parallel with looking at these strategic problems, it is necessary to continue dynamizing the economy.

Bracho points out that “Despite everything, the country maintains interesting levels of economic solvency, the issue of liquidity is still not a reality, it is only a perspective if we do not manage to do well in the short term, and I believe that the country still has room for maneuver to promote this type of megaproject, apart from the fact that we already have experience in with large projects such as two metro lines in operation and three under construction, canal expansion, the country has experience in infrastructural megaprojects.

The economist explains that in the case of the high-speed train and cable car, there are studies that prove the feasibility of the mentioned projects, “it is only necessary to look for funds and realize them, bring them to the implementation and operational phase, and for that there are sources of financing, since the projects are feasible and that in the world there is the technology to perform them and the state has experience, they are sustainable, and on the other hand, the state must quickly send a message to the international community about the capacity that our economy still has to fulfill its obligations and the will we have to maintain or continue on the paths of sustainable growth we have had in recent years.