Juan Pablo Buriticá, General Manager of Ruta del Este, ISA, indicated that from the investor's point of view, any business is viable as long as the equation works. It also has to have enough income to cover all the costs of the project and leave a profit for the investor.

The construction of the David-Panama train is a project that in principle can be done under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Regime, but studies must be done. If the studies are not done and the processes are not followed, it is impossible to make decisions in that regard.

This was stated by the International Consultant Specializing in PPP, Ignacio Aragone.

He added that it would not only be a matter of choosing the modality, "but also of how it will be maintained, since it would not be a matter of guessing and saying that any mobility project could be carried out by PPP," saying that there are methodologies that help determine the correct way to do it.

“We know that any mobility project is typically done through an APP, but that is why all the filters are there to be passed and to ensure that it is done in the best way, because if not, it can be a shot in the foot, as I always say, regardless of whether the wrong method is chosen in terms of banking, in terms of value for money, which brings many methodologies,” explained Aragone.

He assured that the Panamanian APP Law has all those filters that are already internationally recognized practices to understand how and what modality should be used, which in principle yes, but there are more filters than that of actually saying that it can be given by the modality.

Meanwhile, Juan Pablo Buriticá, General Manager of Ruta del Este, ISA, indicated that from the investor's point of view, any business is viable as long as the equation works, and it must also have enough income to cover all the costs of the project and leave a profit for the investor.

Buriticá also said that there are businesses of this type that have some regulated income and others that are not regulated. In the case of a train, of course, it is necessary to evaluate what the purpose of the train will be, whether it will be a passenger train and whether there is cargo to move and whether there are passengers to move it.

“So of course, the project will require all the demand studies and market studies to see if it is viable, because usually the governments have understood that such ambitious projects should be done in phases, first a phase for 10 years, and 15 years to do another phase, but they are projects with great projection,” said the General Manager of Ruta del Este, ISA.

He also said that at some point, he believes that projects of such magnitude merit being carried out by a PPP scheme, "because in the robust scheme there are many actors, paying consultants is not cheap, and it is a question of having all the tools on the table to see if it is viable or not and to take advantage of the experience of other countries, of course," he said.

In July of this year, South Korea's Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Park Sang-woo, visited Panama to attend the president's inauguration ceremony and expressed interest in participating in the project. Meanwhile, the current government created the National Railway Secretariat at the beginning of July. It will be an entity attached to the Ministry of the Presidency and will be headed by engineer Henry Faarup, for the development and construction of the "Panama-David Railway."