Promises to be paid with dragon balls

A lot has been promised political campaigns, and no one has said how they will pay for it, e.g. on the subject of medicines; The company AON estimates that due to the international economic situation there will be a 12.4 percent increase in drug prices, which is why they are calling on health systems to manage new forms of financing or patients will have to continue to pay for access to their drugs. How Panamanians can offer a consensus when they feel that those who aspire to rule hide the truth from them or openly deceive them with lies? A democratic society without a strong consensus of its citizens is in crisis.

Opening ceremonies of spectacular infrastructure works are common in many poor countries like ours. They represent an opportunity for politicians to stand out and take credit for the work that many infrastructure projects do to “improve people’s quality of life”. However, many infrastructure projects that have been promised in current political campaigns, designed for the poor communities of Panama it does not store or distribute enough value to justify its construction and maintenance.

Inaugurations are quickly forgotten and, if they are the value of what is stored or distributed in a particular infrastructure is not capable of financing itself, often through direct or indirect taxes or through fees charged by project suppliers for their development and maintenance, the project is very likely to fail. Unfortunately, if this continues to happen, lPoor countries continue to seek loans for financing works on a large scale and may never get out of its debt cycle. In March 2018, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a report that found 40 percent of low-income countries are now in debt crisis or at high risk of being.

Consider the example of Kenya and the Mombasa-Nairobi standard gauge railway, recently opened, which began operations in May 2017. A recent article in The Economist noted that the $3.2 billion railway “may never make a profit.” The new rail line was supposed to transport about 40 percent of Mombasa port’s cargo, but in the first month it moved only two percent.

Unfortunately, the investment economy seems to have failed. 2013 World Bank study He estimated that “the new railway will only be viable if it can transport at least 20 million tonnes a year, almost everything that passes through the port of Mombasa. Half of that at most”. There is already evidence that the railway will not be sustainable, and if it is not properly maintained, it may not last long.

However, Kenya’s debt to the Chinese Communist Party’s New Digital Silk Road, whoever financed and built the works, it will last, and due to interest, it will grow. It seems that the problem is not the lack of railways (infrastructure) per se, but the lack of value (innovation) for traveling on that track.

For example, the Danish economist Bent Flyvberg, who has conducted extensive research on megaprojects and risk, points out that nine out of 10 megaprojects are late, exceed their budget and perform poorly in relation to their economic projections. And most of the problems and studies that FIyvberg cites are not in the poorest countries of the world, which lack institutional capacities, progress technological and managerial vision for managing these large projects; They are found in the richest nations.” If in those countries where money is not a problem, what can we expect from those of us who pay the state salary with loans?

They are taking away so many unnecessary loans from us sovereignty and we will remain committed to the Channel.