Home / 2001 / February 2001 / Safakeeping Panama's Private Kitty

Safakeeping Panama's Private Kitty

Safakeeping Panama's Private Kitty

February 1, 2001
Panama has accumulated more than a billion dollars in a social investment trust, funded by the sales of state-owned industries and former US holdings in the Canal Zone. The government is taking pains to ensure the money goes where it is supposed to go.

Panama

In 1995, almost two years before Panama began its first large-scale privatizations, the government set up a trust fund to safeguard revenue from the sale of public entities and establish a cash reserve with an ambitious goal. Interest generated from the fund would be used to finance social development projects. "Revenue from the sale of public companies enters the fund and not the treasury," says Rolando de León de Alba, general treasury manager of the Banco Nacional de Panamá, the government's state-run bank and fund trustee. "In essence, the fund belongs to the community and is not a mechanism for the government." Since its creation, the development trust fund has a

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