{"id":63747,"date":"2017-04-17T11:38:23","date_gmt":"2017-04-17T16:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/selasite.azurewebsites.net\/panama-s-economic-growth\/"},"modified":"2023-06-29T01:03:47","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T06:03:47","slug":"panama-s-economic-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rmtsolutions.net\/sela\/panama-s-economic-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Panama\u2019s secret to economic growth: Immigrants"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Panama<\/div>\n
Panama is one of Latin America\u2019s most competitive economies. (World Bank)<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Latin America is in the economic doldrums. After almost a decade of progress, GDP has been negative for the past two years, making it the region\u2019s worst contraction since the 1980s<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

But there\u2019s one exception: Panama. Between 2001 and 2013, the country\u2019s economy grew at twice the rate of the regional average<\/a>. In fact, it has been one of the fastest growing economies in the world.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

So what\u2019s its secret sauce? Probably not what you\u2019d expect, given the backlash across the rest of the world: immigration.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"10-most<\/p>\n

Image: REUTERS\/Carlos Jasso<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Immigrants: an economic boon <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

That\u2019s according to Harvard Professor Ricardo Hausmann, speaking in a session at the World Economic Forum on Latin America.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\u201cWhat Panama shows the rest of Latin America is that to grow significantly, you need to import talent,\u201d Hausmann explained. That\u2019s how countries like the US have managed to gain a competitive edge.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Ricardo<\/div>\n
\n

\u201cIn the US, 40% of the population is foreign-born and 30% of entrepreneurs are foreigners. Most Harvard professors are foreigners. In Canada, Australia and New Zealand, 25% of the population is foreign born. In Singapore, 40% of the population is made up of foreigners.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

It was a point he hammered home in a later session<\/a>: \u201cIt is very hard to create world-class institutions and to be able to innovate by relying exclusively on locally born talent. If it was based on locally born talent, Silicon Valley would not exist.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

In fact, look back in history and you\u2019ll see that many of Latin America\u2019s success stories are down to immigration. \u201cThe companies that exist in Latin America today are those that were founded by the migrants from three generations ago,\u201d Hausmann added.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

And yet today, immigration in the region is very low. \u201cIn Mexico, 0.4% of the population is foreign born. In Colombia, there is one foreign-born person for every 400 people. And when the country was given the opportunity to absorb all the talented people wanting to get out of Venezuela, it put every obstacle it could in their way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

But Panama, along with Costa Rica, is a regional outlier. \u201cPanama\u2019s economic boom has led to a significant amount of immigration, even though the law almost forbids it so they\u2019ve been looking for ways around it. What the country has shown is that to grow significantly, you need to import talent.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n