PANAMA: President Martin Torrijos announces referendum vote that backs ambitious canal expansion plan

Panamanians overwhelmingly backed a plan on Sunday (October 22) to give their famous 92-year-old canal its biggest-ever overhaul, an ambitious project the government hopes will help lift the country out of poverty. The $5.25 billion face-lift allowing the inter-oceanic canal to handle mammoth modern cargo ships won four-to-one voter support in a referendum, the Central American nation's Electoral Tribunal said. The project for the canal, which was U.S. territory until it was returned to Panama in 1999, will double its capacity to enable more and bigger ships to cross between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, boosting government revenue. "Never in the history of the country have we Panamanians taken a decision of this magnitude," President Martin Torrijos said. "We have been the owners of our own destiny and today we have laid the foundation to build a better country for all of us. We have given ourselves the opportunity to make real our hopes with this opportunity which includes all of our votes," he said in a television address. Expansion of the canal, an engineering wonder first opened in 1914, will create a jobs bonanza for Panama's 3 million people and boost economic growth, supporters say. Critics warned the plan could bankrupt the small nation, which is already burdened with huge debts and where most people live in poverty, if costs spiral. Taxpayers could be forced to pick up the tab and investors lose money. Opened in 1914 at a cost of $375 million and 25,000 lives, the canal was dynamited and dug out by thousands of laborers who braved deadly malaria and yellow fever. It saves ships a long haul around South America's treacherous Cape Horn and carries around 4 percent of world maritime trade. But its lock system is too small for many modern tankers and ships making the passage, mainly from the United States, Japan, China and Chile, also face longer waits to make the 50-mile (80-km) inter-oceanic trip as global shipping grows.

ITN Source | October 23, 2006

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