Expanded
Panama Canal would
benefit links between
Latin America, Asia
Panama's foreign
minister on Wednesday
called on Forum for East
Asian-Latin American
Cooperation (Fealac)
member nations to
provide support for the
program to expand the
Panama Canal.
Foreign Minister Samuel
Lewis Navarro is in
Brasilia, Brazil's
capital, for a two-day
meeting of the bloc
called to boost trade
between the two regions
amid concern over the
U.S. credit crisis.
Nine of the ten major
users of the canal sent
envoys to the meeting,
which, he said, has
manifested the canal's
importance in boosting
cooperation between the
two regions.
The Panamanian
government hopes an
expanded canal would
further improve its role
as a world-trade
logistics center, said
the minister. It also
hopes the canal could
provide greater access
for Latin Americans to
the Pacific region and
for Asians to the
Atlantic, he added.
An estimate by the
Panamanian government
has set the budget for
the expansion project at
5.25 billion U.S.
dollars. The biggest
user of the canal is the
United States, ahead of
China, Japan, Chile and
South Korea.
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