President José Raúl Mulino arrived in New York on Saturday to attend the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, where he will pursue a packed parallel agenda that underscores mounting interest from global financial institutions, multinational corporations, business associations and world leaders in Panama.
What Happened
During his high-level week in New York, Mulino will meet with executives from some of the world’s largest companies, including Apple, Intel, Ericsson, Mitsubishi Corp. Americas, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Google, Citigroup, JP Morgan, BBVA, Santander and Bank of America, as well as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the law firm Hogan Lovells Cadwalader and the Council of the Americas. According to the presidency, these companies and organizations have requested meetings and events with Mulino and his team to explore, expand or open new operations in Panama, with the goal of strengthening investment and creating more jobs for Panamanians.
The president’s agenda also includes bilateral meetings with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Guyana’s President Mohamed Irfaan Ali and Suriname’s President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons. Mulino will also attend a meeting of Latin American leaders convened by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He will participate in business forums organized by the Council of the Americas and speak as guest of honor at Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum, which will also feature senior representatives from the governments of Greece, Finland, Colombia and the Marshall Islands.
Accompanying the president are First Lady Maricel Cohen de Mulino, Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha, Economy and Finance Minister Felipe Chapman, Commerce and Industries Minister Julio Moltó, Canal Affairs Minister José Ramón Icaza, National Authority for Government Innovation Administrator Adolfo Fábrega and Panama Canal Administrator Ricaurte Vásquez Morales’ deputy, Ilya Espino de Marotta, among other officials.
Background
The UN General Assembly’s annual high-level week draws heads of state and government from around the world to New York each September, making it a key venue for diplomacy and, increasingly, for sideline business diplomacy. For a country like Panama, whose economy depends heavily on services, banking, logistics and the Panama Canal, direct access to the leadership of global banks, technology giants and multinationals represents a significant opportunity to attract foreign direct investment.
Mulino will also join a debate on the implementation of artificial intelligence and its short-term challenges, organized by the IDB Group. Attending that discussion will be the heads of state of Uruguay, Chile, Guatemala, Honduras and Suriname, along with senior executives from technology companies including Google, Anthropic and OpenAI.
Beyond official diplomacy, the trip includes two events with deep cultural and social significance for the Panamanian community. On Thursday, September 24, the city of New York will formally designate several blocks of Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights as “Little Panama Way,” honoring the generations of Panamanians who helped build the neighborhood and enrich the city’s cultural heritage. Mulino will attend the ceremony.
The president will also launch “Café Presidente,” a training program tied to his social and labor reinsertion strategy, developed in collaboration with Arcane Estate Coffee, a Manhattan coffee shop owned by a Panamanian entrepreneur.
What This Means for Panama
The breadth of Mulino’s New York agenda signals that Panama is being courted by some of the world’s most influential companies and financial institutions. If these meetings translate into new or expanded operations, the payoff could be increased foreign investment and job creation, two pillars of the government’s economic agenda.
The president’s participation in the IDB debate on artificial intelligence, alongside executives from Google, Anthropic and OpenAI, also positions Panama within a conversation that will shape how developing economies adopt transformative technologies.
Meanwhile, the “Little Panama Way” designation highlights the size and influence of the Panamanian diaspora in New York, while the “Café Presidente” initiative connects the trip to the administration’s domestic efforts on social reinsertion. Observers will be watching in the coming months for concrete announcements on investment and jobs resulting from this week’s engagements.
This story was originally reported by Nex Panama.