Panama

French presence

French community: 1,661 registered (2023)

Visits

Visits by Panamanian officials to France:

• 28 October-1 November 2015: visit to France by Isabel de Saint Malo, Vice-President and Minister of External Relations;
• December 2015: visit by President Varela for COP21;
• May 2022: visit by Javier Caraballo, Public Prosecutor of the Nation;
• October 2022: visit by Hector Alexander, Minister of the Economy and Finance, and by Vladimir Franco Sousa, Vice Minister of External Relations;
• October 2023: visit by Hector Alexander, Minister of the Economy and Finance;
• October 2023: visit by Javier Caraballo, Public Prosecutor of the Nation;
• October 2023: visit by Vladimir Franco Sousa, Vice Minister of External Relations.

Visits by French officials to Panama:

• 24-25 February 2013: visit by Laurent Fabius, Foreign Minister;
• 26-27 June 2016: participation of Mr Jean-Pierre Bel, Personal Envoy of the President of the French Republic for Latin America and the Caribbean, in the Panama Canal enlargement ceremonies;
• 19 August 2019: visit by Gérald Darmanin, French Minister for Government Action and Public Accounts;
• 1-2 March 2023: visit by Hervé Berville, Minister of State for Marine Affairs, for Our Ocean Conference.

Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation

An agreement on mutual recognition of diplomas and periods of higher education study between the conferences of French schools (CPU, CDEFI) and the Council of Rectors of Panama (CRP) was concluded on 26 September 2016. In October 2021, the High Council for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (HCERES) confirmed the quality of cooperation with the Technological University of Panama (UTP), which holds an annual France Week.

The French cultural network consists of a school (Lycée Français International of Panama) and two Alliance Française branches (Panama City and David, with 1,259 students). The new premises for the Lycée International de Panama were inaugurated in February 2022, doubling its capacity (to 900 students).

In 2016, the French language was put back on Panama’s curriculum. France Education International cooperates with Panama’s Ministry of Education in training language teachers, in liaison with the Alliance Française.

In 2019, an education cooperation agreement was signed between the National Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation (SENACYT), the Institute for Training and Human Resources (IFARHU) and the French Embassy in Panama. It has helped establish a scholarship programme for Panamanian students wishing to pursue academic science and technology studies in a French university. The SENACYT has also decided to create an institute for information and communication technologies, a project being led by Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour in France.

An agreement between the French National School for the Judiciary (ENM) and the Higher Institute for the Judiciary of Panama (ISJUP) on training judges, signed on March 2017, is currently being implemented.

Global issues such as the protection of biodiversity and oceans are becoming a central focus of bilateral cooperation, specifically in terms of science, thanks to Panama’s position as a pivotal regional player on these subjects.