The Panama Canal announced a ten-year roadmap aimed at strengthening its strategic role in global trade, ensuring sustainability, and generating benefits for the population.
The plan focuses on two main areas: water security through expanded storage capacity for human consumption and canal operations, and sustained growth via business diversification and increased transport capacity without greater water use.
The strategy was presented at an event attended by Minister for Canal Affairs Jose Ramón Icaza, Canal Administrator Ricaurte Vásquez Morales, and Deputy Administrator and Sustainability Officer Ilya Espino de Marotta.
The Canal will invest more than B/. 8,000 million in strategic projects. According to the announcement, these projects are expected to create jobs, drive national economic growth, and increase annual transfers to the Panamanian government for social investment.
One of the projects, the Río Indio reservoir, is designed to provide water to more than one million people while enhancing the reliability of canal transits. Another project, the interoceanic energy corridor, includes a 76-kilometer pipeline and two maritime terminals capable of handling up to 2.5 million barrels of energy products per day between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts without passing through the locks. Construction of the pipeline alone is projected to create more than 45,000 jobs, with 11,000 positions in operation, and generate over B/. 64,000 million during its lifetime. The state is expected to receive more than B/. 647 million during execution and over B/. 35,000 million between 2031 and 2050.
The Corozal port, to be located on the east bank, will be integrated with a logistics platform connected by road and rail.
For the pipeline, the selection process for a concessionaire has been approved by the Canal Board of Directors and will start with outreach to potential bidders, followed by prequalification and technical dialogue sessions before the final tender. The bidding process is scheduled for the second quarter of 2026.
In parallel, a prefeasibility study for the Corozal port is in progress, with results expected in the first quarter of 2026 and construction set to begin in 2028.
The Panama Canal is an international maritime waterway administered by the Autoridad del Canal de Panamá (ACP), an autonomous legal entity of the Republic of Panama responsible for its operation, management, and modernization. The ACP is governed by a Board of Directors appointed under Panamanian law.