Megapolis Panama :.

Panama, officially the Republic of Panama (Spanish: República de Panamá), is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on an isthmus, Panama is a transcontinental nation which connects North America and South America. It borders Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south.

Panama's economy is service-based, heavily weighted toward banking, commerce, and tourism, due to its key geographic location. The handover of the canal and military installations by the USA has given rise to new construction projects. The Martín Torrijos administration has undertaken controversial structural reforms, such as a fiscal reform and a very difficult Social Security Reform. Furthermore, a Referendum regarding the building of a third set of locks for the Panama Canal was approved overwhelmingly (though with low voter turnout) on 22 October 2006. The official estimate of the building of the third set of locks is US$5.25 Billion.

The Panamanian economy grew 8% in 2006 and for the first time in the last ten years the public sector closed the year 2006 with a superavit of 88 millions (USD). Furthermore the GDP nominal revised in 2006 reached 16,704 billion (USD) according to information release in the document in spanish; "Informe Fiscal - Cierre año 2006" by the Minister of Economy and Finance on 2007/02/14, see link at the bottom of the page of the minister.

The Panamanian currency is the balboa, fixed at parity with the United States dollar. In practice, however, the country is dollarized; Panama mints its own coinage but uses US dollars for all its paper currency. Panama is one of three countries in the region to dollarize their economies, with the other two being Ecuador and El Salvador.

The high levels of Panamanian trade are in large part due to the Colón Free Trade Zone, the largest free trade zone in the Western Hemisphere. Last year the zone accounted for 92 percent of Panama's exports and 65 percent of its imports, according to an analysis of figures from the Colon zone management and estimates of Panama's trade by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

Panama fared decently in tourism receipts and foreign direct investment as a percent of GDP (the fourth-highest in Latin America in both categories) and internet penetration (eighth-highest rate in Latin America).

Panama City has seen a race between two rival projects aimed at becoming the tallest building in Latin America. The 104-story residential and hotel building, Ice Tower, is slated to be completed in 2010.

There are more than 105 projects in Panama City where neighborhoods are experiencing a huge increase in the number of buildings. In San Francisco there are currently 25 new buildings being built.

The Palacio de la Bahia project has been cancelled by the Spanish promoter Olloqui. The two projects were originally smaller, but subsequently started adding floors to obtain status as the tallest building in the region.

Grupo Mall, another Spanish developer, is building a multitower apartment complex, hotel, and commercial mall. The project is scheduled for partial completion in 2009.

Apart from the existing demand, future developments will also be helped by such factors as the planned expansion of the Panama Canal, a possible refinery by U.S. oil giant Occidental Petroleum and a new container port near the Pacific entrance of the canal.