Panama's Minister of Economy and Finance, Felipe Chapman, stated in an interview with EFE that the government's ongoing plans will boost foreign investment in Panama "at a very interesting pace." Panama urgently needs these inflows to reduce unemployment and increase fiscal revenue.

Panama's President José Raúl Mulino announced an ambitious infrastructure plan and implemented a series of economic and spending management measures, rebuilding confidence in the dollar-dependent Central American nation. Panama, with its transoceanic canal and regional logistics hub status, is seeking to further enhance its strategic importance.

The minister stated, “I am very confident that this process will accelerate as government programs begin to yield concrete results, and we will see very interesting growth in domestic investment. Furthermore, reinvestment of profits by local companies will also increase.”

The economist emphasized, “In fact, Panama is already accelerating its efforts to attract direct and financial investment.” He cited examples such as the acquisition of the Panama Canal Railway Company by an independent division of Danish shipping giant Maersk this year, and the sale of its Panamanian operations by Mexican cement giant Cemex to the Dominican Republic's Estrella Group.

APM Terminals (APMT) acquired the operating rights to the Panama Canal Railway Company for $600 million, while the Estrella Group acquired Cemex's Panama plant for $200 million.

The minister noted, “There are many similar cases this year; these two transactions alone are close to $1 billion, a significant amount equivalent to over 1% of GDP.”

Chapman stated that Panama's foreign exchange earnings are primarily generated by “service exports, including sectors such as the canal, tourism, logistics, and banking, all of which are growing.”

According to existing estimates from Panama's National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC), Panama's foreign direct investment (FDI) reached $2.8326 billion in 2024, a 28.9% increase from the previous year. A large portion of this growth comes from reinvesting profits from companies already operating in Panama.

Profit reinvestment has long been a prominent feature of Panama's FDI, even when Panama led Central America in certain years of the 2010s. Several local analysts have pointed out that this may explain why FDI has had a limited impact on job creation, as some profit reinvestment may simply be for accounting purposes.