President of Panama H.E. Juan Carlos Varela met with CARICOM Heads of Government during Saturday’s session of their 36th Regular Meeting at the Hilton Hotel, Barbados, and made a strong case for closer cooperation.

“Strengthening Panama’s relations with CARICOM at all levels is a top priority for my Administration. Therefore, on behalf of my Government, at this moment I would like to express our interest in becoming Observers of CARICOM.

In terms of commerce and trade, Panama is at your disposal to become an Office Hub for those CARICOM companies looking to expand their presence in the region and to promote tourism between Latin America and the Caribbean

Most of our Caribbean descendants living in Panama settled in Colon, our main city on the Atlantic coast, where our Government will invest 600 million US dollars within the next four years to fully renovate this city and restore its Caribbean architecture.

We want the Colon people to re-encounter with their Caribbean heritage. To achieve this goal and promote tourism we plan to develop a new route for cruise ships connecting Colon with Jamaica and other countries of CARICOM.”