China to study Panama-Chiriqui rail link

 
1,077Views 3Comments Posted 20/11/2017

ON THE HEELS of the news that  Air China will be initiating two flights a week to Panama in March 2018, President Juan Carlos Varela announced  on Monday, November 20, that  an agreement  has been signed for China to carry out the pre-feasibility study of a  rail system  that would include a passenger and cargo train linking the provinces  of Panama and Chiriqui The president and his 60-plus delegation  of politicians  and businessmen traveled on Monday from Beijing city to Shanghai on a high-speed train.

In  a keynote  speech at Renmin University of China where he was awarded an honorary doctorate and appointed as an honorary adviser to the university's Center for Latin American Studies Varela pledged to “enhance pragmatic cooperation in all fields with China and  play an active part in the Belt and Road endeavor (the plan to replicate the  recently completed China to London road-rail link, with a link running from South America to Alaska)

"The Belt and Road Initiative is a very good one. It will connect all the ports, airports among various countries to achieve connectivity and common development of all countries. Panama, the first Latin American country to support the initiative, will actively participate in it," said Varela.   He also pledged firm adherence to the one-China principle.