Insecurity may stop investors

Direct Foreign Investment (IED) in the country, that in 2003 was just $791 million, increased by 31.5 percent between 2007 and 2008 from $1.8 billion to $2.4 billion, according to official data.

The consulting firm FTI revealed to La Estrella that this year Panama has reached danger level three with regards to perceptions of insecurity in Latin America, according to a scale where five is the most dangerous and shows a higher incidence of crime, and one is the lowest risk.

Haiti is at the top of the list of countries with higher levels of crime with a risk indicator of five. At lower level four are Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia and Mexico. At level three are Panama, Nicaragua and Peru.

Panama city was evaluated at level three between 2003 and 2009, but the panorama is beginning to change for the worse.

The executive director for Panama and Central America of FTI Consulting, Matias Mora Simoes, said that according to statistics Panama is a secure place with common criminals but no organized crime, and that has not changed over the last few years.

“In the Panamanian capital the insecurity perception is of 76 percent and 60 percent in the rest of the country,” said Mora.

The National Private Enterprise National Council president, Gaspar Garcia de Paredes, said that Panama has an image of being a “quiet country” that has attracted people from neighboring countries such as Venezuela and Colombia.

The spokeswoman of the Ministry of Government and Justice, Mara Rivera, said that for the government the security problem is priority.

Although Panama has not lost its prestige as being a good place to live, it is important to control the level of criminality before it is too late and finds itself included in the wrong category.