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CENTRAL AMERICA |
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Panama, Spain Sign Agreement To Reduce
Poverty
PANAMA - Panama and Spain signed the
"Program of the Enterprise Opportunities for
Poor Families" on Wednesday to reduce the
poverty rates in Panama's rural zones.
According to the program, a fund of 8
million U.S. dollars will be given to Panama
by the Spanish Agency for International
Development Cooperation (AECID), under the
mediation of the United Nations Development
Program (UNDP).
Rosa Beltran, a coordinator from AECID, said
the resources for this program are part of a
fund that Spain gives to the UNDP to achieve
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
"With this social initiative, we want to
reach the less favored social sectors in the
rural and indigenous zones, for them to have
more ease to access development," Beltran
explained.
Meanwhile, Panamanian Economy and Finance
Minister Alberto Vallarino said this program
will be applied in the provinces of Cocle,
Herrera, Veraguas and Chiriqui, where 40
percent of the inhabitants live in poverty.
"Good times are coming; the government is
getting ready for a strategy of national
development for the coming five years, which
foresees important investments to boost the
agriculture sector in these provinces,"
Vallarino announced.
Panama is one of the Latin American
countries with the largest imbalances in
income, education and health, despite an
average GDP increase of 8 percent in the
last three years.
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