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The Expanding Canal
The fastest growing economy in Latin America for the last two years, Panama owes
much of its prosperity to the Panama Canal. The 80km belt of locks links the Atlantic to
the Pacific, and east with west. In the last century, the canal has cast the isthmus as the
western hub of global commerce. Each year, more than four million containers travel it,
their hulls filled with everything from bananas and grains to oil, lumber and shiny new
cars. You may have never visited Panama, but it is quite likely that both the fruit in your
juice and the accessories in your pocket once did.
One of the world's largest transportation projects, the Panama Canal's US$5 billion
dollar expansion is expected to double the current capacity and triple the traffic in the
canal by digging deeper to accommodate bigger vessels and by adding a third lane. It
already hauls in US$2 billion yearly.
A financial boon for Panama, the expanded Panama Canal is expected to be completed
on the heels of the canal's 100-year anniversary - slightly behind schedule. The canal is
also expected to shift trade patterns, upsetting the prosperity of North American west
coast ports.
Detractors fear that the project - along with the tab for a new US$1.2 billion dollar
Panama City subway system , a proposed beltway in Panama Bay, a new international
airport and other projects - will shackle the country with serious debt. Or is the infra-
structure upgrade a savvy investment? With the supersizing of merchant ships world-
wide, the gamble bodes necessary if Panama is to remain a key shipping hub.
Sitting on Green Riches
Although the canal has defined Panama for the last century, it's what lies just beyond this
engineering marvel that could define the next 100 years. A third of the country is set
aside as protected areas and national parks, and the culture and customs of Panama's in-
digenous populations remain largely intact. Yet visitor numbers are nowhere near those
of neighboring Costa Rica. Many outsiders assume that Panama is all about its capital
and commerce. But while Panama races toward rapid-fire development, the resources it
has always had and oft neglected have started to attract attention.
Panama's intrigue, which dates from the voyages of Columbus and its plundering by
pirates, may be its one treasure that remains intact. One of the most biodiverse places in
 
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