Tax benefits drive tourism investment in panama

There isn’t a single business person in Panama who hasn’t heard of Panama Pacifico. One of the world’s largest mixed-development projects, it is poised to become a city within a city.

Close to the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, just over Panama City ’s Bridge of the Americas, this area used to be an Air Force base called Howard. But today, a special arrangement offers business and tax benefits to certain types of businesses in this area. For example, set up shop here and you could pay no taxes for the transfer of goods and services to ships, passengers, or any of Panama’s mega-ports.

The Panama Pacifico “Special Economic Area,” as it’s called, has lured plenty of big business, from giants like 3M to Mailboxes, Etc. (the UPS Store). But little businesses have yet to take hold in the former Howard…and so much is needed.

There is a daycare, a single gas station, and little else. There are already hundreds of people living here and some 2,500 employees work here every day. The poor souls have nowhere to go for a latte or even a nice business luncheon…yet.

Many of the people who live and work here are foreign, and new transplants continue to arrive. Start a business here now, and you’d be the first in with a major head-start. You could start with something like offering city shopping tours.

Source: NuWire Investor